Feng

Politics of Hedonism in Françoise Sagan’s Bonjour Tristesse (Image resource: amazon)  Bonjour Tristesse written by an eighteen-year-old, Françoise Sagan, is a novel about a seventeen-year-old girl, Cécile.   She lives with her forty-year-old father, Raymond. Raymond enjoys parties, young women, drink and easy conversation. He, Cécile and his latest girlfriend, Elsa, sojourn on the southern coast of France, where Cécile meets a young law student Cyril. Cécile is mercurial in her thoughts, but once a true rival for her father's affections arrives at the summer house, her jealousy surfaces fully. Anne had been a friend of Cécile's mother, and, unlike Raymond's other love interests, is intelligent and similar in age. Raymond wants to get marry with Anne. Cécile is afraid that their life will be changed completely by Anne. They cannot pursue pleasure any more in their hedonistic way. Although Cécile seems happy living without goal, she still often feels contradictor...

       In the department of forest resources and environmental conservation, the researcher Gerry was interested in a forest   of the Northern   Rocky Mountains . Recently, many climbers went there and never returned. After reading news about that and other’s research papers, he wanted to go there and did the research personally. Before he left, his wife was afraid that he would never come back so she told him to take care repeatedly. He replied: “I will. I have gone to this mountain several times. I am familiar with the roads, plants, and ridges of that mountain. Don’t worry about me. I love Nature and protect everything in Nature gently, so I think nature will treat me the same way.”  In the middle of his climbing, he found a strange road he never saw before even though he has come here several times. He walked along that road. Suddenly, he saw a single tree which may be around 3 to 4 thousand years old on the edge of a cliff. It looks very...

       After reading the poem “Ode on a Grecian Urn” written by John Keats, I did not really understand the meaning of “Beauty is truth, truth beauty” (Keats ll. 49) in the last stanza. I have seen various explanations, but they seemed abstract to me and none of them satisfactorily answered my question. Therefore, I try to find the answer by knowing the background of this poem, responding the criticism of T. S. Eliot, and analyzing this poem by myself .      At first, I want to talk about the background of this poem briefly. "Ode on a Grecian Urn" is a poem written by the English Romantic poet John Keats in May 1819. It was in the peak of the Romantic era which was approximately from 1800 to 1850. In the Romantic era, people felt a deepened concern for the metaphysical problems of existence, death, and eternity. At that time, romanticists paid attention to the value of eternity and perpetual. Hence, everything on the urn is eternity. The u...

The Green Submarine, the NTPU student club, launched “Earth Week” for the first time to celebrate Earth Day, demonstrating support for environmental protection around the world. “ We just transform actions we can take in our daily life into our activities,” said Yi-Shan Hsin, a sophomore from sociology department, who is the organizer of this activity. “ It is not hard to take actions, but it is hard to do it persistently. ” “Earth Week” activities included drinking lemon juice without extra flavor during lunchtime on April 21. They also held a competition of stair climbing to advocate taking the stairs instead of the elevator. On April 22, the activity on Earth Day was turning off the lights one hour in dormitory to save energy, which started at 19:30 . This club wants to bring the aims of Earth Day into school through these activities. The aim of Earth Day is to provoke the awareness of Earth protection and to find the balance between developing economics and preserving ...

The rates of dormitory have been increased this year at National Taipei University where students living in dormitories have to pay a 20 percent increase in room expenses. I think the rising rates are sensible. A local newspaper quoted the student from law department as saying that students from low-income households cannot afford the rising rates. Furthermore, they are afraid that the effects of renovation will not meet their expectations after paying more. The authorities decided to increase the rates because of two reasons. One is that prices including water and electricity have kept going up because of inflation. The other is that Dean of Student Affairs Chao-Meng Huang said that rising rates are used to do the renovation because some equipment and facilities have to be replaced or fixed. I think they can increase the rates and also give subsidies for those in need. Therefore, they can create a win-win situation.

Lessons in Love    At the wedding studio, Emma is in the fitting room and she has already tried many wedding dresses for about eight hours. Gerry walks back and forth in front of the fitting room and then picks up and reads the newspaper. He feels bored and he is impatient with her hesitation. Emma     (She comes out the fitting room and stands in front of a full-length mirror) What do you think about this one? Gerry    It’s beautiful. Very suitable for you. ( He speaks impatiently, reads  newspaper, and doesn’t look up) Emma   (Walk close to Gerry and pull away his newspaper) You don’t look at me. How do you know it is suitable for me? Gerry   (Look up) Oh! You are so beautiful. Emma   Really? But……I think it is too expensive. Gerry’s cell phone is ringing Gerry   (He answers the phone) Mom……okay, we will go home in twenty minutes.  (After hanging up the phone, he walks close...