We learn about resilience in Chapter 8 through Miss Maudie by her trying to take of care of her plants despite her house being burnt down.

‘She held up her hands. A network of tiny lines criss-crossed her palms, brown with dirt and dried blood’

It shows that Miss Maudie is resilient because she lost her house yet was still determined to take care of what meant the most to her: her flowers. She also seemed to be unfazed by the fact that her house had been burnt down as she says that she didn’t really like it anyway.

“One country, two systems” has been and will be the principle of Hong Kong and China until 2047. Well that’s what the Chinese government promised anyway.

1st July 1997. The transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to China marked the end of British rule in Hong Kong. After the British left, China allowed the region to have a high degree of autonomy and to preserve its economic and social systems. Due to this, Hong Kong also has its own currency (which is not able to be used legally in China), its own legal system and citizens residing there have their own passports. However, China did not allow them to administer in military defence, foreign affairs or to have complete control over their own government. This was the beginning of the conflict between Hong Kong and Mainland China.

The people of Hong Kong have begun to isolate themselves from the rest of Mainland China due to their cultural, political and lingual differences. In reply, China has become much more controlling over Hong Kong since the ‘Handover’ despite their promise of not interfering too much. This caused the conflict to escalate and contributed to the 2014 Hong Kong protests.

There are two main groups of pro-democratic activists which have emerged from the situation. One of them being ‘Occupy Central’. This group is led by an student known as Benny Tai and in June 2014, they organised an unofficial referendum where one in five citizens attended. Shortly after the vote, thousands of protesters took part in one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democratic rallies on the 1st July; the same day the ‘Handover’ occurred. Since then the other group (‘Hong Kong Federation of Students’ and ‘Scholarism’) has also played a key part. For example, there were class boycotts in late September 2014 which eventually led to city-wide protests. This shows the intensity of the situation in Hong Kong and leads me to my main question. ‘Should Hong Kong separate itself from China?’.

If Hong Kong could become an independent country, they would not have the ability to sustain themselves due to the lack of resources on their island. They would have to import all their food and oil (without the help of China) with no space to develop an industry large enough to make profit. This would then leave Hong Kong in a position where they would only make money from tourism for a short period of time before leading to bankruptcy. However, if countries are willing to invest in Hong Kong’s economy, they could use their fishing industry to provide most income.

If Hong Kong were to stay as a state of China, the conflict could increase to a point where China would take complete control over Hong Kong despite the agreement.This has already been brought to light in the protests.

My verdict is that Hong Kong are right to be protesting against Mainland China’s intervention because of the agreement that both sides had with one another and by China violating the terms, the menioned agreement was not met with honour. I also believe that China is being far too dominant as they already have the most control over the government. Furthermore, the rules listed in the agreement only last for fifty years, so Hong Kong will have to be returned to China in 2047. However, I do not believe that Hong Kong should not separate from China as of now. This is because they rely far too much on them in terms of income and military support. This situation has already been embarrassing for both sides and stopping their rivalry would be the most ideal outcome.

It is important for characters to conceal the truth to maintain their social contracts because it would put them into a position that they wouldn’t want to be in.

An example is when Dill and Jem lied to Atticus about what they were really doing to save themselves but unknowingly saving Atticus as well.

They told Atticus that they were playing strip poker and that is why Jem did not have pants on when they were actually sneaking into the Radley garden. Their fictitious story saves them because playing strip poker with matches is less destructive to the judgement of the other people in Maycomb County. Furthermore, their lie would be less damaging to Atticus because the rest of society would think that he brought up his children in the wrong way and he would be embarrassed and disappointed.

Shame influences the actions of characters in Chapter 2 by putting them in positions that they do not want to be in or do not want to accept.

This is shown when Miss Caroline offers Walter Cunningham money which he refuses to accept and she asks why. At this point, Scout backs up Walter by explaining to the teacher that he comes from a poor family. By saying this, Scout shames both Walter and Miss Caroline. She shames Walter by making it clear to Miss Caroline that he comes from a poor family when he didn’t want to but also Miss Caroline as it makes her seem stupid in front of her class. As a result she beats Scout on the hand with a ruler. This is an example of shame influencing the actions of characters.

If you break a social contract, it puts you in a position where you feel shameful or isolated. This is shown in To Kill A Mockingbird when Scout and Dill have a conversation about Dill’s father and Scout pushes the boundaries by saying

“Then if he’s not dead you’ve got one, haven’t you?”

This puts Dill in a position where he doesn’t want to explain to his new friends where his father is or what happened to him as it might make them think differently of him. Furthermore,  ‘Dill blushed’ which means that he was feeling embarrassed or ashamed. However, I do not believe that breaking social contracts would only cause an emotion of shame or embarrassment but could also create anger or provocation.

I have a dream that one day this nation would rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed.

In recent months, explicit images of the most famous celebrities ,such as Jennifer Lawrence and Kaley Cuoco, have been leaked in an event called the ‘Fappening’. This has caused a lot of commotion on the Internet and it has brought much excitement to everyone, everywhere.

In actual fact, this is very inappropriate and, quite frankly, disgusting behaviour from the people who encourage this. Celebrities deserve to have their privacy as much as we do as they are still people and they have their rights. Taking explicit pictures for personal reasons are well-justified but the fact that these private matters are being exploited is just wrong because these images have been released with no consent.

My chosen topic: Celebrities have the right to privacy

In recent months, explicit images of the most famous celebrities ,such as Jennifer Lawrence and Kaley Cuoco, have been leaked in an event called the ‘Fappening’. This has caused a lot of commotion on the Internet and it has brought much excitement to everyone, everywhere.

In actual fact, this is very inappropriate and quite frankly, disgusting behaviour from the people who leaked the images online. Is it not? Celebrities deserve to have their privacy as much as we do as they are still people and they have their rights. I think that taking explicit pictures for personal reasons are well-justified but the fact that people’s privacy are being exploited is just wrong because these images have been released with no consent.

I think that some of the sentences are able to mix the word classes and still make sense. This is shown when Orwell writes ‘I shall double the final figure in order to arrive at the complete amount.’

This can be rewritten as ‘The final figure shall be doubled in order to arrive at the complete amount.’ However, I think that this takes away the feeling that the author is involved.

Original:

And if our book consumption remains as low as it has been, at least let us admit that is because reading is a less exciting pastime than going to the dogs, the pictures or the pub, and not because books, whether bought or borrowed, are too expensive.

Simplified:

Our book consumption remains low. At least let us admit that it is because reading is a less exciting pastime. Not because books are too expensive.

This wasn’t what I wanted. It never was. I tried but I got nowhere.

It all began about 6 months ago,when school began. It was the first day of Year 10 and everyone was in the new school uniform for the upper school which consists of a black blazer, white shirt, black tie, black trousers (skirts for the girls) and formal shoes. I was standing in the furthest corner of the field whilst waiting for the new term to begin. I looked down at my watch, it was ten to nine. Other people in my year were walking through the gates and their excitement of seeing each other after a long time radiated towards me. This made me think qabout two of my friends who I haven’t seen for about 8 weeks. I checked my watch again, only two minutes had passed. In the corner of my eye, a glimpse of a figure moving towards me was caught. My head slowly sweeped to the right. Standing there was Charlie. He was about 5 ft 7 with scruffy blue hair and green eyes.

” Hey Alex, ” he said.

” Oh.Uhh.Hi, ” I replied slowly.

” How was your summer? ”

” It was alright I guess, ” I shrugged ” Didn’t really do much,”

” Yeah. Me nei…”

Charlie was interrupted by a small figure running towards us. In the distance, we could hear the figure cursing.

” I hate this damn school and everyone here!” He exclaimed.

Charlie and I looked at each other.

” Sam, ” We both said with a smile on our faces.

Sam was my only other friend at school. He was one of the shortest in the year but was very athletic which meant that he was involved in almost every sport club in school. However, Sam was extremely short-tempered and he had anger management sessions every week. I preferred Charlie over Sam. That was probably because Sam could bite your head off if you crossed him. Charlie was a lot more casual and he didn’t really care about what other people thought of him (which is why he dyed his hair blue). They both stood about two metres away from me and reminisced about things that happened in Year 9 but I wasn’t really paying attention. I was thinking about how scarce my summer was of events that were worth remembering. Most of my time was spent in front of a computer screen. I blinked. I slowly raised my head to see the last few people walking through the school gates. I looked down at my watch for a third time just as the bell went.

Charlie and Sam began to walk towards the new building; they both had Buisness Studies. I gave them a nod as they were leaving. Charlie noticed and responded with a small wave. As soon as they were about fifteen metres away, I began to make my way towards the entrance of the old building. The entrance was nothing spectacular. It was just a stone brick archway which hung over the old oak doors. The first lesson on my timetable was Spanish. I hated Spanish. I have nothing against the language, its’ just that I’m incapable of rolling my tongue and speaking the accents which made it very hard to speak Spanish. In the distance, I could see the other figures in black sauntering into the entrance;it was like a very organised zombie apocalypse. The layout of the school was in my mind so I knew that the language department was three corridors away in the order of left, right and left from the exact spot where I was standing. I put my legs into fourth gear and drove fowards through the traffic and towards my destination.

All was going well until I heard a familiar voice through the droning mutter of students. I cringed. It was the perfect English accent of Richard Francis. The manner in which he speaks could almost make you feel patriotic if he wasn’t so condescending. In Year 8, we had to speak about our parents’ jobs and what we wanted to do in the future. Most of the kids here were from a wealthy background so their parents were all CEO’s of large companies or something similar. They mostly said that they were going to take their parents’ buisnesses or they were going to become doctors or lawyers. However, when it was my turn to speak, I told the class that my mother was a teacher in a state school and my father died when I was just three years old. Had I known that saying something like that in a private school would cause so much trouble for me, then I certainly wouldn’t of said anything. The next two years up to now made it very hard to wake up and come to school to endure the abuse I was going through.