



Welcome to class blog! This blog belongs to the students of Academic Bridge Reading at BIR. This is a place for students to publish and share their writing.




'This is a well presented, authentic looking series of readers that students should enjoy. Brad is the best actor to show how much he ambitious. he does everythings to make him successful. If you had one shot, one opportunity to seize everythings that you wanted. Do you capture it or just let it slip? Real life doesn't always have a happy ending. So people should have ambition but nothing more, nothing less. It's good when you have things your way. You can do everythings that you want but you must accept result too that we call "Free will". Just like a movie, Brad is good example to show "Free will". He does everythings that he want and he accept result that he gets. (5 years in jail)

Helen Keller at the age of 19 months,(not quite 2 years old) was a happy, healthy child. She was already saying a few words.
Then she had a high fever which caused her to become deaf and blind. No longer could she see nor hear. She felt lost. She would hang on to her mother's skirt to get around. She would feel of people's hands to try to find out what they were doing. She learned to do many things this way. She learned to milk a cow and knead the bread dough.
She could recognize people by feeling of their faces or their clothes.
She made up signs with her hands so she could "talk" to her family. She had 60 different signs. If she wanted bread, she pretended to be cutting a loaf. If she wanted ice cream, she would hug her shoulders and shiver.
Helen was a very bright child. She became very frustrated because she couldn't talk. She became very angry and began to throw temper tantrums. The family knew they had to do something to help her.
They found a teacher named Anne Sullivan. Miss Sullivan herself had been blind, but had an operation and regained her sight. She understood what Helen was feeling.
She taught Helen the signs for the letters of the alphabet. Then she would "spell" the words in Helen's hand to communicate with her.
One day Anne led Helen to the water pump and pumped water on her hand. She spelled the letters W-A-T-E-R as the water ran over Helen's hand. She did this over and over again. At last it dawned on Helen that the word "water" meant the water which she felt pouring over her hand. This opened up a whole new world for her. She ran everywhere asking Anne the name of different things and Anne would spell the words in her hand. This was the key which unlocked the world for her.
She eventually stopped having the tantrums. Anne taught her for years. Helen learned to read Braille This was a system of raised dots representing letters. A blind person could read by feeling of the dots.
When she went to college, her teacher Anne went with her and tapped out the words of the instructors into her student's hand.
Helen had an amazing memory, and she also had skills very few people have ever been able to develop. She could put her fingers to a person's lips and understand the words which were being spoken.
While she was in college she wrote her book called "The Story of My Life". With the money she earned from the book she was able to buy a house.
She became famous and traveled around the world speaking to groups of people. She met many important and well-known people as she traveled.
Helen Keller was successful because of her determination. However, many people helped her. The most important person in her life was Anne Sullivan who stayed with her for 50 years.
Doctor nicky is kind lady and she looks after children. The foreign soldiers take him to an orphanage. He is befriended by chris and Dr. Nicky, the orphanage physician from Doctors Without Borders. His parents warned him about "the people on the other side of the river." But not until he sees the handiwork of these people does he begin to realize how evil and dangerous his fellow man can be. Painfully, he compares the happiness and activity of his farm and village before the battle with the stillness, destruction, and smell of death after "the people on the other side of the river" have left. He also describes the deep psychological wounds of the other children at the orphanage. He relates the relentless horror of the war as it gets closer and closer, to the very yard of the orphanage. He takes the UN to task for seemingly not pursuing its stated mission. He also wants to know why Chris would want to tell the stories of children on the other side of the river, and why Nicky would want to treat them. He compares the condition, clothes, and weapons of the UN soldiers - there strictly to provide humanitarian aid and forbidden to fire unless fired upon - with those of his battleworn countrymen. When soldiers of Jojo's country arrive at the orphanage, the plot takes a heartbreaking turn, followed by a disturbing surprise ending. The author of gives Jojo a consistently simplistic and limited perspective, often with humorous results. This is a risky technique, but in this case, it's very effective. Jojo's Story is testimony, not commentary. There are no monologs, no philosophying. The world is viewed through the eyes of the story's most important and most vulnerable character. Readers are left to draw their own conclusions. This strategy is also effective. Many times I've had to read a review to understand a story because it is sophisticated or so subtle. By contrast, the implications of Jojo's Story are immediately recognizable. We never learn Jojo's nationality, not even his region. Nor are we offered geographic names or family names. Jojo represents a multitude of children all over the world and all through history. This is a powerful, timeless story with universal lessons. It's hard to imagine how the orphan refugee story could be told better. I wouldn't change one word





Just like a movie.<>

A Danny Boyle film













It is very hard to even imagine somebody being blind AND deaf. I would only imagine it being in a complete darkness. I am sure as a kid Helen must have been in a complete darkness. No wonder she was frustrated. I would imagine her world completely differently as a young adult. I see her teacher Annie had opened the whole world for her by teaching her words and how to read. I see as a colorful beautiful world with an open path to travel, explore... indefinite,... endless....
