老牛

     Build Our Own Space Force

     xyz ,     School of Earth and Space Science  , Peking University              

Chinese miserable history happened since 1840, when the Opium War broke out. When I was young I found it very hard to understand the result of the war, how can so large a nation be defeated by no more than 30,000 British invaders. So I blame all on the impuissant Qing government. But as I grow older I shifted my ideas. We were doomed to be beat down at that time, for we were so ignorant about the leaps of the west world, thus we were left behind with so large a gap.

It was when I studied Physics that I begin to understand the social principles taught in the Politics class, which states, “ the advanced productivity is certain to conquer the less developed”. In the 1840s what were the westerners doing? Then The Industry Revolution was sweeping all the Europe and the newborn US, thus fresh blood with every enthusiasm drove them to explore the rest of the world. On the contrary, the old and ignorant Chinese nation was dying. The feudal system that lasted for thousands of years in China dimmed and discouraged the enterprising spirit, and at last killed it at all. So the miserable history is the very high price our nation paid for, what we can do nowadays is not to let it happen again and get back our great dignity in the modern world.

As a youth of Chinese nation, I regret the humiliating history we once suffered, I respect our Founding Fathers who fought bravely and intelligently to save China, and I am willing to devote the whole of my life to the cause of Chinese renaissance. Profound changes have come about in China since the country embarked on the policy of reform and opening-up. The situation in the country is the best ever, characterized by a swiftly and steady advancing economy and markedly improved living standard. We are all optimistic about our nation’s bright future.

However, if the country is to become a great power in the world and protect its own benefits in the future, so many hurdles lie ahead. As we all know, Taiwan independence secessionist fiercely challenges peaceful reunification of China, which becomes the biggest obstacle for the stability and development across the strait. Moreover, we conflict with our deadly enemy Japanese over the sovereignty of Diaoyudao, and we conflict with Southeast Asian countries over the sovereignty of some area of South China Sea where is rich in energy resources. We love peace but we must be aware of the cutthroat wolves around us, we have suffered so much in the history, therefore we must be stronger than our opponent in order not to suffer it again.

So I always want to be an army officer, contributing my intelligence to the modernization of PLA. Nowadays, war has become intellectual rivalry between two sides. New technologies are used more and more in military            

operations, and the trend is “the strong getting stronger, while the weak getting weaker”. If we can’t catch up with the world powers in some key technologies, we may be powerless when our core benefits are aggrieved, only to suffer it ourselves. I think in the future space war is probably to occur when the outer space benefits of different countries conflict. In fact, space war has not been too far from us. Some countries, the US and Russia, have been developing technologies of space war and most of its weapons and equipment are being developed. Space weapons can electronically hijack a cruise missile in flight and will be able to conduct a space attack against any satellites in orbit. Therefore, we must pay special attention to the development of space war and make essential preparations to build our own space force.

As China develops its space technologies, our space benefits call for our forces to protect, so we should build our own space force to reply to the challenge launched by some countries. Otherwise, we will be very much passive if wars break out. Above is why I want to contribute efforts to build a mighty space force of our own .I admire those who sacrifice themselves to prospect our glorious nation, they are indeed worth the esteem of all the people. I desire to be the backbone of our nation, so I study science and technologies with every enthusiasm here in Peking University. If a prosperous and powerful China come true due to the hard efforts and sacrifice of our generation, then when I die I can be heartedly content with all my life, not wasting anything God offers to me.

Reading Response For The Gift Of Gift Giving

Outline:

1.     My general impression and comprehension of the passage.

2.     My thoughts upon this passage.

3.     Specific ideas about my thoughts, mainly two aspects.

4.     Something as a conclusion.

First Draft:

The author of this passage explored some social rules that lie behind gift giving and analyzed the mental activity of both the person who gives gift and the person who receives. After reading this article, I do become more comprehensive about the niceties of gift giving which I once ignored. Moreover, when I look into the society I find the meaning of gift giving is just declining, giving gift is now far more beyond expressing your good wishes and genuine gratitude. For sure, this passage is really thought-provoking, bringing me much thinking.

First, I used to think there were no niceties, that it was the thought and the action not the specific gift that counted. So in my view decoration is nothing more than decoration, it’s completely useless. But now I think I am at least partly wrong, people need these useless things to express their inner feelings. Last year when Father’s Day was drawing near, one of my classmate send a truly sentimental short message to his father directly expressing his deep love. He said his father is like one of his best friends, he talk everything with him. However, when I was with my father we have so few common topics that sometimes we just sit there silently. I feel there seems an invisible wall between us, now I think maybe I ignored some niceties to express my love to my dear father. So I realized sometimes decoration is of some use.

Second, the meaning of gift giving is declining nowadays. Today people give money almost on every occasion such as Spring Festival and weddings. In Chinese tradition, the more valuable your gift is the more genuine your wishes are, and the value of your gift represents your face too. Therefore, the so called“gift debt”is really a heavy burden. The real meaning of gift giving is declining because it is more and more materialized. In my eye, we give gift to express our hearts, so it is tacky to give valuable things to show-off, save face or inspire guilt just as the author say in the passage. What material can bring to us is limited, you can never fill your desire up; while someone’s true love or genuine appreciation can give us so much psychic contentment and satisfaction.

In a word, we need decoration to express our true feelings, but we appreciated the psychic contentment it brings to us much more than itself.

Peer evaluation:

Your passage is simple and easily read, so for clarity it is qualified. But your content is not critical and creative, just something common. And relevant connections are not good enough between your two aspects.

Second Draft:

The author of this passage explored some social rules that lie behind gift giving and analyzed the mental activity of both the person who gives gift and the person who receives. After reading this article, I do become more comprehensive about the niceties of gift giving which I once ignored. Moreover, when I look into the society I find the meaning of gift giving is just declining, giving gift is now far more beyond expressing your good wishes and genuine gratitude. For sure, this passage is really thought-provoking, bringing me much thinking.

First, I used to think there were no niceties, that it was the thought and the action not the specific gift that counted. So in my view decoration is nothing more than decoration, it’s completely useless. But now I think I am at least partly wrong, people need these useless things to express their inner feelings. Last year when Father’s Day was drawing near, one of my classmate send a truly sentimental short message to his father directly expressing his deep love. He said his father is like one of his best friends, he talk everything with him. However, when I was with my father we have so few common topics that sometimes we just sit there silently. I feel there seems an invisible wall between us, now I think maybe I ignored some niceties to express my love to my dear father. So I realized sometimes decoration is of some use.

Second, the meaning of gift giving is declining nowadays. Today people give money almost on every occasion such as Spring Festival and weddings. In Chinese tradition, the more valuable your gift is the more genuine your wishes are, and the value of your gift represents your face too. Therefore, the so called“gift debt”is really a heavy burden. The real meaning of gift giving is declining because it is more and more materialized. In my eye, we give gift to express our hearts, so it is tacky to give valuable things to show-off, save face or inspire guilt just as the author say in the passage. For example, current mooncakes tend to be overpackaged and too extravagant .However, its original meaning of family reunion has been greatly weakened. What material can bring to us is limited, you can never fill your desire up; while someone’s true love or genuine appreciation can give us so much psychic contentment and satisfaction.

In a word, we need decoration to express our true feelings, but we appreciated the psychic contentment it brings to us much more than itself.

Self Evaluation:

I don’t quiet agree with the Peer Evaluation. I admit my passage is simple, and therefore it is easy to read and comprehend. But I don’t think my ideas are not critical, I expressed my ideas, the true feeling upon this passage. I think that is just enough. And in order to specifically support my views in the second aspect I added an example (the words underlined).By and large ,I don’t think my passage is that bad.