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Identities Paragraph

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Unfortunate yet Justifiable Police Shooting

Being in the wrong place at the wrong time may cause catastrophic consequences. This is portrayed in the short story “Identities” written by W.D. Valgardson. The story took place in an unsafe neighborhood that can be described as a Ghetto. A man with an appearance that contradicted his wealthy status drove around in his Mercedes Benz, and a patrol officer suspected him as a thief. Ultimately, the police ended up shooting the man due to his suspicion. Even though the police officer killed an innocent man, he was justified when he pulled the trigger because the officer did what was reasonable as a police. He found the man in an area where crimes occur regularly. In addition, he was skeptical due to the expensive car and “because he has been trained to see an unshaven man in blue jeans as a potential thief and not as a probable owner” (Valgardson 3). Then, when the police ordered the man to halt, instead of following the officer’s demand, he reached for his wallet to get his identification. At that moment, the police felt threatened as he thought the man was reaching for a weapon. One might say that the policeman had an impaired judgement of the situation and abused his authoritative power. However, by examining the case from the police’s perspective, the officer’s action was admissible. According to David Klinger, a University of Missouri St. Louis professor who studies the use of force, police officers are allowed to shoot under two circumstances. The first circumstance is “to protect their life or the life of another innocent party,” and the second is “to prevent a suspect from escaping” (Lind, 2016). The police officer in “Identities” certainly felt the need to protect himself from the danger and thought the man was attempting to flee. Legally, the crucial point in these shootings is whether “police officers reasonably believed that their lives were in danger, not whether the shooting victim actually posed a threat” (Lind, 2016). Although the public may criticize that, often times, law enforcement increases the chances of innocent people being placed in jeopardy, police officers necessitate this law to ensure their safety while they work. One should never forget that the police are humans as well. Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security. The police officer who killed the innocent man was legitimate by virtue of the laws on police’s use of force. It is unfortunate that the man died. If a different officer were in that neighborhood, the result may have turned out differently. Therefore, this story has the power to deliver the message that fate is not always determined by one’s own actions.

 

 

Characterization (3D) – “Insert Character’s Name”

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  1. “Henry; the choir boy who had fainted sat up against a palm trunk, smiled pallidly at Ralph and said that his name was Simon” (28)
  • This quote talks about Henry, who is apart of the choir, and when the littluns arrived, they were wearing their choir jackets

 

2. “Henry was the biggest of them” (pdf 83)
– “Them” indicates the little ones. Henry is bigger than the rest of the little ones but smaller than the big ones.

 

3. “This was fascinating to Henry. He poked about with a bit of stick, that itself was wave-worn and whitened and a vagrant, and tried to control the motions of the scavengers” (pdf 85)

  • This quote shows the readers that Henry has a interest in nature.

 

4. “There were little boys, fair, dark, freckled, and all dirty, but their faces were all dreadfully free of major blemishes. No one had seen the mulberrycolored birthmark again” (122).

  • This quote does not talk in particular about one certain littlun, but it is the overall appearance of them all.

 

5. “They were dirty, not with the spectacular dirt of boys who have fallen into mud or been brought down hard on a rainy day. Not one of them was an obvious subject for a shower, and yet—hair, much too long, tangled here and there, knotted round a dead leaf or a twig; faces cleaned fairly well by the process of eating and sweating but marked in the less accessible angles with a kind of shadow; clothes, worn away, stiff like his own with sweat, put on, not for decorum or comfort but out of custom; the skin of the body, scurfy with brine—” (pdf 157)

  • This quote explains how the boys became dirty.

 

6. “The undoubted littluns, those aged about six, led a quite distinct, and at the same time intense, life of their own” (61)

  • The readers can assume that Henry is about 6 years old.

 

7. “They were very brown, and filthily dirty” (61)

  • This quote shows that the Littluns are very filthy and have dirt all over them

 

8. “And in the middle of them, with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose” (61)

  • The boys became dirty as they haven’t showered for a long time.

 

9. “On the beach, Henry and Johnny were throwing sand at Percival who was crying quietly again” (pdf 94)

  • The readers can assume that Henry would be covered in sand.

 

These quotes are from the novel, “Lord of the Flies” written by William Golding. The quotes are descriptions of Henry, a character in this novel. He is one of the little ones, so we assume that he is about 6 years old. Henry is the biggest one among the little ones. Therefore, the readers can assume that he is quite big as a 6 years old. The readers can know other things about his appearance. In the first part of the story, when the boys have just arrived at the island, Henry wore the choir’s uniform : a long cape. However, as the time went on, Henry became dirty as he has dirt on his body and his hair became long and tangly.

“Lord of the Flies” – Island Description

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These are the quotes that describe the island, where the story takes place in the novel, “Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding.

 

The Platform

  1. “Here the beach was interrupted abruptly by the square motif of the landscape; a great platform of pink granite thrust up uncompromisingly through forest and terrace and sand and lagoon to make a raised jetty four feet high. The top of this was covered with a thin layer of soil and coarse grass and shaded with young palm trees. There was not enough soil for them to grow to any height and when they reached perhaps twenty feet they fell and dried, forming a criss-cross pattern of trunks, very convenient to sit on. The palms that still stood made a green roof, covered on the underside with a quivering tangle of reflections from the lagoon” (Golding 13).           

The Beach

2. “The shore was fledged with palm trees. These stood or leaned or reclined against the light and their green feathers were a hundred feet up in the air. The ground beneath them was a bank covered with coarse grass, torn everywhere by the upheavals of fallen trees, scattered with decaying coconuts and palm saplings. Behind this was the darkness of the forest proper and the open space of the scar. Ralph stood, one hand against a grey trunk, and screwed up his eyes against the shimmering water. Out there, perhaps a mile away, the white surf flinked on a coral reef, and beyond that the open sea was dark blue. Within the irregular arc of coral the lagoon was still as a mountain lake—blue of all shades and shadowy green and purple. The beach between the palm terrace and the water was a thin stick, endless apparently, for to Ralph’s left the perspectives of palm and beach and water drew to a point at infinity; and always, almost visible, was the heat” (Golding 4).

3. “The place of assembly in which he stood was roughly a triangle; but irregular and sketchy, like everything they made. First there was the log on which he himself sat; a dead tree that must have been quite exceptionally big for the platform. Perhaps one of those legendary storms of the Pacific had shifted it here. This palm trunk lay parallel to the beach, so that when Ralph sat he faced the island but to the boys was a darkish figure against the shimmer of the lagoon. The two sides of the triangle of which the log was base were less evenly defined. On the right was a log polished by restless seats along the top, but not so large as the chief’s and not so comfortable. On the left were four small logs, one of them–the farthest– lamentably springy” (Golding 82).

Lagoon

4. “Within the irregular arc of coral the lagoon was still as a mountain lake—blue of all shades and shadowy green and purple” (Golding 10).

The Cave

5. “He led the way over the rocks, inspected a sort of half-cave… There was indeed a long green smudge halfway up the rock… Side by side they scaled the last height to where the diminishing pile was crowned by the last broken rock… A hundred feet below them was the narrow causeway, then the stony ground, then the grass dotted with heads, and behind that the forest” (Golding 115-116).

6. “He was surrounded on all sides by chasms of empty air. There was nowhere to hide, even if one did not have to go on. He paused on the narrow neck and looked down. Soon, in a matter of centuries, the sea would make an island of the castle. On the right hand was the lagoon, troubled by the open sea; and on the left— Ralph shuddered. The lagoon had protected them from the Pacific: and for some reason only Jack had gone right down to the water on the other side. Now he saw the landsman’s view of the swell and it seemed like the breathing of some stupendous creature. Slowly the waters sank among the rocks, revealing pink tables of granite, strange growths of coral, polyp, and weed. Down, down, the waters went, whispering like the wind among the heads of the forest. There was one flat rock there, spread like a table, and the waters sucking down on the four weedy sides made them seem like cliffs. Then the sleeping leviathan breathed out, the waters rose, the weed streamed, and the water boiled over the table rock with a roar. There was no sense of the passage of waves; only this minute-long fall and rise and fall” (Golding 150).

Bathing Pool

7. “The beach near the bathing-pool was dotted with groups of boys waiting for the assembly” ( Golding 22).

The Scar

8. Beyond falls and cliffs there was a gash visible in the trees; there were the splintered trunks and then the drag, leaving only a fringe of palm between the scar and the sea” (Golding 22).

The Island

9. “It was roughly boat shaped; humped near this end with behind them the jumbled descent to the shore. On either side rocks, cliffs, tree-tp[s and a steep slope; forward there, the length of the boat, a tamer descent, tree-clad with hints of pink: and then the jungly flat of the island, dense green, but drawn at the end to a pink tail. There, where the island petered out in the water, was another island; a rock, almost detached, standing like a fort, facing them across the green with one bold, pink bastion” (Golding 26).

The Coral Reef 

10. “The coral was scribbled in the sea as though a flowing, chalk line but tired before it had finished. Inside was peacock water, rocks and weed showing as in an aquarium; outside was the dark blue of the sea” (Golding 26).

 

Volcano

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Mount Kilimanjaro, the largest volcano in Africa, is a composite volcano which is tall and steep, and built up by many layers of hardened lava and volcanic ash. The reason why there are multiple layers is because composite volcanoes are constructed from multiple eruptions, sometimes recurring over hundreds of thousands of years. Lava from an active composite volcano can flow through cracks in the crater wall. Then, the lava hardens around the cracks andstrengthens it.

 

“Mount Kilimanjaro.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2017.

“How are composite volcanoes formed?” Reference. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Jan. 2017.

Modeling Polynomials

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Before using the algebra tiles to model the mathematical expressions, I chose each colours of the tiles to represent what it meant.

Key :

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  • (x+1)^2

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(x+1)^2

= (x+1)(x+1)

= x^2+x+x+1

= x^2+2x+1

I expanded the expression (x+1)^2 in to (x+1)(x+1), because this makes it easier to understand why the algebra tiles are labled like that. There are one red stick and one red small square on each of the two sides. In the middle, there are red large square, two red stick, and 1 red small square.

  • (x-1)^2

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(x-1)^2

= (x-1)(x-1)

= x^2-x-x+1

= x^2-2x+1

This equation is similar to the prior. The only difference is that this equation has a -1.

To solve this equation, I expaned (x-1)^2 in to (x-1)(x-1).

  • (x+1)(x-1)

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(x+1)(x-1)

= x^2-x+x-1

= x^2-1

I put a red stick and a red small square on the top side, and a red stick and a yellow small square on the left side. Then, I could know which alegebra tiles had to go in to the middle. A red big square, two sticks that are different colours, and one yellow small square.

  • (x-1)^3

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(x-1)^3

= (x-1)(x-1)(x-1)

= (x^2-x-x+1)(x-1)

= (x^2-2x+1)(x-1)

= x^3-2x^2+x-x^2+2x-1

= x^3-3x^2+3x-1

I couldn’t model this expression because it was cubed, so I had to solve it by doing two steps. First, I wrote it down like this, (x-1)(x-1)(x-1). I multiplyied the two binomials together, and that gave me (x^2-2x+1). Then, I multiplied the trinomial and (x-1). Finally, I simplified the expression, and the simplified expression was x^3-3x^2+3x-1.

Trigonometry

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In math class, we are learning about trigonometry. From yesterday’s lesson, we learned that it is about a relationships involving lengths and angles of triangles.

 

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The longest side, AB, is called the hypotenuse (hyp).

The side opposite the angle of A, AC, is called the opposite (opp).

The third side of the triangle, BC, is called the adjacent (adj).

Sin A = opposite / hypotenuse

Cos  A= adjacent / hypotenuse

Tan  A = opposite /  adjacent

 

When using calculators, I could know the ratio by pressing the buttons ‘sin’, ‘cos’, or  ‘tan’ .

To know the angle, I would press the buttons ‘sin-1’, ‘cos-1′, or tan-1’.

 

Sam the Athlete

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Was it proper for Sam to continue wearing skirts?
Everybody should be able to do something they are passionate about without having to be restricted by gender. The book “Sam the Athlete” is written by Stuart McLean. It is about a boy named Sam, who faces problems that are caused by his sexuality. He is placed in a team of girls and faces the problem of whether or not he should wear the skirt. Eventually, he decided to continue wearing the skirt. He really likes sports and his dream is to be an athlete. He has tried several sports such as soccer, baseball, curling, and hockey. Unfortunately, he wasn’t good at any of them and couldn’t fit in to the team. One day, he spotted a poster about a try-out for field hockey. This he thought was “the reckless faith of the hopeless, was the sport he had been looking for all his life”(66). He went there right away and found out that field hockey was the sport that he is actually good at. He felt so great to hear compliments from the coach, but he soon found out that the team was for girls when the coach gave them the skirts to wear. He didn’t know that the players were girls before because everybody was wearing a helmets. He could have just sneaked out of the team but instead, “Sam went home and shaved his legs” (68).He enjoys the sport and most of all, the compliments that he got made it a major reason for him to disguise himself as a girl. It was his first time to feel being a part of a team. Sam decided to live a lie just to fit in with other girls and to do what he loved. Soon, his mom had found out that the team is a co-ed. Sam were able to wear shorts and stop pretending to be a girl. Surprisingly, he said he loves to wear the skirt and he will keep wearing it. It was a good decision because he became liking the skirt and it was the most comfortable clothes for him. Sam should do what ever he would like, despite of sexual discrimination. He doesn’t have to follow how the society is structured. He can do something different and be confident of what he likes to do. Eventually, everyone in the team got to know that Sam was a boy and now it was his choice to wear or not. He didn’t have to lie that he was a boy anymore, and he wore what he liked. Therefore, Sam made a good decision on continuing to wear the skirt. It is important to do what he pleases him.

Scientific Method Bubble Gum Lab

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Today our science class did a ‘Scientific Method Bubble Gum Lab’.

What brand of gum is the best at blowing bubbles and why? Support your answer with observations and your data.

Big League Crew is the best at blowing bubbles. Hubba Bubba’s average bubble size was 21.5cm and Big League Crew’s average bubble size was 26.3cm. Blowing the bubble with Big League Crew was easier to blow the biggest bubble than Hubba Bubba, becuase it is soft and that made it stretch more.

How does gum stretchability relate to bubble size?

The bubble size depends on the gum stretchability. The stretchier the gum is, the bigger the bubble will be. Comparing the two gums, Big League Crew blew the biggest bubble and also it stretched out 617cm further than Hubba Bubba.

List 5 variables that may affect the outcome of this experiment.

  1. Mouth temperature
  2. Saliva
  3. Chewing time
  4. Bubble blowing capability
  5. How fast the person chew in a limited time

Explain how the data you collected can be described as both qualitative and quantitative

Observing the colour, shape, smell, and texture of the gum is a qualitative data. Measuring the length of the bubble and the length of the stretched gum is quantitative.

Were SI units used in this lab? Explain.

Yes, I used centimeter to measure the diameter of the bubble and the length of the stretched gum. I also used grams to weigh the gum.

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