vocab - (18 may 2016)

WORDS	DEFINITION	EXAMPLE
Ramshackle	i)                    Appearing ready to collapse. ii)                  Carelessly or loosely constructed.	The yard was sectioned off by a ramshackle wooden fence that was just barely held together with chicken wire.
Infuriate	To make (someone) very angry : to make (someone) furious.	I was infuriated by his arrogance.
Clout	i)                    If you clout someone, you hit them.	i)                    The officer clouted her on her head and that was a rude action.
	ii)                  A person or institution that has clout has influence and power.	ii)                  Mr Sutherland may have the clout needed to push the two trading giants into a deal.
Recuperate	When you recuperate, you recover your health or strength after you have been ill or injured.	He had recuperated from a serious back injury.
Imminent	if you say that something is imminent, especially something unpleasant, you meant it is almost certain to happen vey soon.	They warned that an attack is imminent.

vocab - (17 may 2016)

WORD	DEFINITION	EXAMPLE
Desertion	The abandonment without consent or legal justification of a person, post, or relationship and associated duties and obligations.	Soldiers were prisoned for desertion of their posts.
Lament	If you lament something, you expresses your sadness, regret or disappointment about it.	Ken began to lament the death of his only son.
Scintillating	A scintillating conversation or performance is very lively and interesting.	You can hardly expect scintillating conversation from a kid that age.
Emasculate	If someone or something is emasculated, they have been made weak and ineffective.	since Japan’s defeat, the military has remained largely emasculated.
	If a man is emasculated, he loses male role, identity or qualities.	Tosh was known to be a man who feared no-one, yet he was clearly emasculated by his girlfriend.
Verisimilitude	Verisimilitude is the quality of seeming to be true or real.	At the required level of visual verisimilitude, computer animation is costly.

Vocab - (16 may 2016)

WORDS	DEFINITION	EXAMPLE
Divulge	If you divulge a piece of secret or private information, you tell it to someone.	I do not want to divulge where the village is.
Hinder	If something hinders you, it makes it more difficult for you to do something or make progress.	Further investigation was hindered by loss of all documentation on the case.
Impediment	Something that is an impediment to a person or thing makes their movement, development, or progress difficult.	He was satisfied there was no legal impediment to the marriage.
Imbue	If someone or something is imbued with an idea, feeling, or quality, they become filled with it.	As you listen, you notice how every single word is imbued with a breathless sense of wonder.
Confide	If you confide in someone, you tell them a secret.	He confided to me that he felt like he was being punished.

CATCH US IF YOU CAN

Catch us if you can written by Catherine Macphail

Catch us if u can is a story about a growing child named Rory McIntosh and his granda who had a pneumonia. The setting of the story is in England. Rory mother had died when he was still small and his father ran away.

            The story begins with Rory, 11 year old, responsible boy who took a good care off is granda. Rory loved his granda so much and he did not want to be separated with him. Rory typically will sneak out of his school to buy lunch for his granda. Granda was senile and had a forgetful behaviour. He often forget where he put his pipe.

            Everything was fine until an unexpected tragedy occurred. Rory’s apartment was on fire when he got back from school as a result of his granda tried to prepare lunch for Rory but he forgetfully left the chip pan on the stove. Rory was concerned about his Granda as if he did not want to lose him.

            Granda was admitted to hospital and a social worker named Val Jesup was assigned to take care of Rory. Granda felt very crestfallen when he knew that Rory had to stay in Castle Street, a terrible nightmare place for Rory. Rory did not feel comfortable staying in Castle Street as if there were quiete eyes watching him and he could feel the awkwardness that surrounded him. Granda was sent to Rachnadar, a terrible and creepy place for granda where he willing to stay in the most queer place in the world rather than staying in Rachnadar.

            Rory came out with a notion to smuggle granda out of the Rachnadar. With a well-planned strategy, Rory managed to ran away with granda victoriously with the help of his friend, Darren. They stayed in Darren’s mom’s caravan and they found out that the caravan was loaded with sufficient amout of food. Unfortunately the authorities could smell their steps and engendered them to keep running. There was a stranger, a family that they never met and seen before that willing to help them.

            There were many obstacle and challenges that they had to face bravely, to make sure their escape plan succeeded. Rory wanted to meet his real father and he had to do it without confide the actual plan to granda. In a nutshell, Rory able to meet his father in Liverpool after bravely and enthusiastically overcome the obstructions that coming towards them. Their family had been united again and a strong love bonding will never set them apart again.                                  

 Based on the novel catch us if u can, the issue that had been discussed in the novel is should an 11 year old boy carried out the responsibility to take care of his granda or leave it to the old folks home. In my opinion, Rory need to take care of his granda because he is the only member of his family that he still care. Even though Rory is still young, he has a big responsibility as a grandchild that is taking care of his devoted granda. Although his obligation is burdening him, he has pure heart and a bond of love between him and his granda that could not be broken. Responsibility does not depends on the age, but it depends on your will.

       The story had thought us about a strong love bonding between family members. As a human, love is a feeling that we cannot describe using a sentence of word. Love come from your heart. Love bonding connect human between their family members and don't matter what happen, our family is the first priority. As we can see in the novel, Rory did anything that he could to avoid and prevent from being separated from his granda again. It is our responsibility to protect our family from being taken by others and ensure the bonding will never ever break forever.

WORDS	DEFINITIO N	EXAMPLE
Senile	If old people become senile, they become confused, can no longer remember things, and  are unable to look after themselves.	The old man was showing unmistakeable signs of senility.
Pneumonia	Pneumonia is a series disease which affects your lungs and makes it difficult  for you to breathe.	She nearly died of pneumonia when she was at her office.
Tinker	i)                    If you tinker with something, you make one small changes to it, in an attempt to improve or repair it. ii)                  In former times, a tinker was a person who did not have a fixed home, but travelled from a place to place mending metal pots and doing other small repair jobs.	i)                    Instead of the Government admitting its error, it just tinkere with the problem. ii)                  Granda assumed that the stranger that helped him was a tinker.

            

THE WALK

The Walk directed by Robert Zemeckis

The main character is Philippe, a French man who had a big dream to do something that is impossible and beyond anyone’s expectation.

           

            The story begins when he was a child where he went to the circus to see various kinds of the talent. Each of them had different and amazing skills that none any other human could do. There were jugglers, acrobats, freaks and many more but the one that caught his eye was the awesome wire-walker.

            From that moment, he had a dream that he wanted to be a well-known wire walker in the world that everyone could see his eye catching performance. He began his life journey when he started to build his own wire walker route or platform on the backyard of his house .Starting with an easy stage using 4 wires, he then proceeded to a more challenging stage. Everyone around him including his own family did not support his preposterous notion. His dad believed that if he did not change his dream he would not be able to afford even a single bread to support his life in the future.

            With enthusiastic, he decided to leave for Paris to make his dream a reality. Many people often ask him a typical- questions. ‘Why did you attempt to do this?, ‘Why did you risk your death?’. He never said the word ‘death’. For Philippe, it is ‘life’. Being a wire walker means life to him. He began his performance in the capital city of Paris where he met the street musician named Annie. That was his first performance ever in his life. It was a disaster. A failure.

            He wanted to redeem himself by doing a more challenging wire walking performance. A failure does not mean an ending of everything. He saw the Notre dame de Paris building as the perfect comeback for wire walking performance. As the sun was rising, the first tourist came he started to walk on the wire. People started to know him. Many country started to recognised him but things did not went as he expected. There were a few country that assumed his action as a ridiculous and a waste of time.

            Philippe then find a way to his victorious achievement. The notion turned out when he was reading a magazine. A building that no one will cross in mind to do such a ‘stupid’ wire walking performance. The huge, enormous World Trade Centre that was still under construction became his next target. He went through lot of impediment but still he never gave up on his dream. He managed to cross the building which consists of North and South building . The world started to know him for his notorious and victorious wire walking performance.

            One lesson I learned from the movie is that we need to be persistent, tremendous, enthusiastic and not giving up easily to catch our dream. Ignore what people say about us because they know nothing. We are the one that are going to decide. We are the one that are going to make a choice. We are the one that are going to control everything because it is our dream. Different people had different perspective of how they see and analyse about one thing. We are the one that need to proof whether is it wrong or right. We cannot force human to think like we wanted to but we can make them see and perceive the real thing. What human see will determine what they feel and what they feel will determine what they think. We need to overcome obstructions that are coming towards us. Victory in achieving your dream does not mean satisfying others but satisfying yourself of what you had done by being persistent and putting all of your efforts to make your dreams become reality.

            The movie also potray a concept of trust between the character. It is found when Philippe find accomplices for his coup. They trust each other and they even believe that Philippe ridiculous notion can be a historical victory that will not only affect their lives, but it will affect most of the people in the world by showing them the possibilities of doing something that is beyond expectation. They willing to sacrifice their time, money and even their freedom in order to make Philippe dreams come true. A success needs sacrifices.

WORDS	DEFINITION	EXAMPLE
Persistent	a)      something that is persistent continues to exist or happen for a long time; used especially about bad or undesirable states or situation. b)      Someone who is persistent continues trying to do something ,   even though it is difficult or other people against it.	a) Persistent rain had cause the organiser to hold the cycling event as the roads are slippery and wet can cause an unexpected accident to the cyclist. b) Philippe is a very persistent man that he still perform a wire walking performance even though he is risking his own life.
Apparition	An apparition is someone you see or think you see but who is not really there as a physical being.	The girl was traumatised from the car accident and     often saw apparition of her family.
Maestro	A maestro is a skilled and well-known musician or conductor.	The skilful maestro had performed a very enjoying and eye catching performance.