Ian Thorpe, a Great Swimmer

By Masato Inoue

Ian Thorpe is an Australia swimmer who specialises in freestyle. First, he was born in Sydney, New South Wales, October 1982. The five-year-old Thorpe followed his elder sister into the pool. As a young child, Thorpe was sidelined by an allergy to chlorine. As a result he did not swim in his first race until a school carnival at the age of seven. After that, Thorpe gradually overcame the ailment and progressed to the captaincy of New South Wales for the Australian Primary Schools championships in 1994. At 14 years and 5 months, Thorpe became the youngest ever male to be selected for the Australian team, and he was a contestant in all twelve events, winning ten individual gold and two bronze medals. Next in 1998 World Aquatics Championship, Thorpe’s time was fourth fastest in history and made him the youngest ever male individual work champion, aged 15 years and 3 months. After the Athens Olympics, Thorpe took a year away from swimming, and he announced his retirement in November 2006. From early 2011, Thorpe returned to swimming, and he is targeting qualification for the 2013 World Championship in Barcelona. He is still a good swimmer.

How to Make New Friends

By Lisa Goto

You have many ways to make new friends. First of all, you have to smile to others. You have to smile at them with all your heart, so it’s not good to force your smile. If you do that, you can’t communicate with others because they understand your feelings. When you are with others, you always have to have a smile on your face. Second, it’s good to exchange greetings. You have to do that from you. If you wait for greeting from others, you can’t make friends. You should remember others’ faces with which you have exchanged greetings. This is useful way. You try to exchange greetings many times. That is to remember your face to others. Finally, you have to throw away your disgrace, bad idea, or bias against others. If you become shy, you can’t communicate with them well. You also have to speak to others with having courage. There is the most important thing. In conclusion, you can use many methods to make new friends.

I'd Like to Live in the Future

By Ayaka

I want to live in the future period because I think certainly there are a lot of convenient tools. I’m wondering about how techniques such as cell phones and computers will advance. And the other reason is because I just want to know my future. I want to know whether I will get married and what kind of jobs I will get. I think the future period is interesting because there are many things which I don’t know. 

How to Get Good Grades

By Kana

If you want to get good grades, you have to make efforts at both classes and home. In the class, you must not sleep. If you sleep during the class, you will miss something important which teacher said. Also you should speak up in the class more than one time because you will never forget what you said. In addition, you have to ask the question to the teacher whenever you have a question, If you leave the question as it is, you won’t be able to know what teacher says. So you must not hesitate to ask the question. If you are friendly with your teachers, it will make it easy to ask the questions, so being friendly with your teacher is one of the knacks to get good grades. Moreover, you have to make efforts at home. The first thing you should do at home is review of the classes. The review makes it easy to memorize. Then, you don’t have to spend a lot of time to remember before the tests. If you have time to study more at home, you had better prepare for next day’s classes. It makes it easy to understand next day’s classes. So if you make efforts a lot at both classes and home, you can get good grades.

My Bedroom

By Ayaka

I think my room is simple. My room is the upstairs in my house. When you enter my room, to the left there is a small bookshelf. I put 3 photographs and perfumes and textbooks. These photographs were with my family and with my boyfriend and with friends. These perfumes were given to me by my boyfriend. Next to the bookshelf, there is a bed. In front of the bed, there is a TV. Near the TV, there is a large bookshelf. I put teddy bears and books and so on. The carpet’s color is red. I like red.

The Flag of My Country, Japan

By Ayaka

I think the Japanese flag is the most simple in the world. The flag is drawn a red circle on a white ground. It looks like sunrise, so it is called "the rising sun flag" in English. In Japan, it’s called “Hinomaru.” This red circle symbolizes the sunrise. The colors of red and white are traditional happy colors in Japan.

Class Writing Project: What Should a Person Never Give Up?

By Pamela den Ouden

The following 10 entries were a project in our Reading 2 textbook: What should a person never give up? 

People should never give up their honesty and integrity. We have had many instances in the past few years and decades of athletes who took illegal drugs to make their performance better. Canadian runner Ben Johnson was exposed as a drug user after the Olympic Games. His career as a runner was destroyed because winning became more important to him than being honest. Integrity is more important than winning.

Don't Give Up Work

By Kingsley

A person should never give up their work. 

A Person Should Never Give Up their Sports

By Sam

A person should never give up their sports easily. It is hard to succeed in every sports. It might take 10,000 times to do well even more bravely to face different challenges that you meet and try to overcome all of these challenges. If you avoid it, you will never be successful in your life. On the contrary, trying to practice a demanding schedule is a good way to be a great athlete. But sometimes it is difficult to keep training every day.

Don't Give Up Your Favorite Foods

By Hiroko Fujimoto

In my opinion, people should never give up their favorite foods. First if they give up their favorite foods, they can’t concentrate on their practice. I think if they eat their favorite foods a little bit, their weight don’t gain. Next famous Japanese gymnastics player, Kohei Uchimura, likes chocolate snacks and he doesn’t eat many vegetables. I mean giving up their favorite foods is not always good things. Finally, if they know they can eat their favorite foods after practice, they must be able to practice hard. If they want to succeed, you don’t stand something too much.

Athletes Should Never Give Up Practice Time

By Ami Sakai

Athletes should never give up time in order to succeed. First of all, they should never give up about practice time. For example, if they want to go out with their friends, they always need practice. Second, they should never give up about sleep time. For example, if they haven’t enough sleep time, they can’t give a good performance. Finally, they should never give up about their mind. If they want to get successful, they don’t think negative! So, they should never give up time in order to succeed.

Taking a Rest is Important

By Yuko Fukuda

A person should never give up taking a rest to succeed at one thing. First, we want a rest when we spend to practice a long time because they might be tired. Secondly, if they don’t take enough to rest, they can’t do a good job. Thirdly, if their brain is tired, they are negative because they need a good condition brain for good performance, so they should take a rest for brain, too. A person’s body need taking a rest for doing anything.

Never Give Up Hard Practice

By Mina Tanaka

A person should never give up hard practice. First, if you want to be a good athlete, you must spend many time. For example, when your practice doesn’t have free time, you are very tired. But it is good for you, because you can practice very well. Secondly, if you hate your practice, you can’t grow in your sport. Also, you can’t win a championship, so you should make an effort to do it.

Never Give Up Time with Your Family

By Lily

A person should never give up time with their families in order to succeed. Firstly, if you communicate with families less, they will feel treat coldly. For example, the child feels that you don’t care for him, and he will do bad things. Secondly, your parents believe you forget them due to spending no time with them. Finally, your husband maybe leaves you because you spend much time on work. So a person must spend more time with their families.

A Person Should Never Give Up Sleeping a Lot

By Koichi

A person should never give up sleeping a lot. Children usually want to stay up late, but they have to sleep early, so they can’t go to party and drinking. Also, they have no time to do something such as study because of sleeping. They have to do something in the morning or noon or evening.

What Should a Person Never Give Up?

By Sochae Chung

A person should never give up communicating with your family. If you want to succeed at one thing, you need to sacrifice many things. But only communication with family certainly supports you and your mental health. When you lost a game or contest, you family’ll say “cheer up, you can get next chance!  Next time you’ll do your best!” So you’ll solve your stresses by your family. Your family is the most understanding people for you. I f you give up communicating with family, nobody says “Cheer up!” It is poor. Therefore you should never give up communicating with family.