Pride

From my position as a middle schooler I don’t think too much about my country. I personally am more focused on smaller things like sports and doing well in school. When thinking about it I am proud of my country. The U.S is a very powerful country. It has a democracy, which gives citizens many rights. The U.S is also a very powerful country, and it is always one of the first to help others when they are in need. I do take pride in my country.

Creatoin vs. Evolution

Authors note: For this assignment we were required to write a persuasive argument piece of our choice. My choice was evolution vs. creation.

How do you think everything was created? Some think that it was something called the big bang, others believe that everything was created by god. I personally believe that god is in fact the creator.
The big bang theory states that the universe started at a point and has been expanding ever since. When most people think of the big bang theory they think of an explosion of some sort, which is false. People say that is an expansion that is still happening now. I think that this is not true. Without god how could there have even been a start?
How could the big bang have possibly created life? Earth is full of life. Plants, people, and animals cover the earth. I don’t see how an expansion could possibly be capable of creating life; I also think that it is impossible for nonliving materials to create living things. I think that this shows that god is the creator.
One example from the bible that I think helps prove that god does exist is the great flood. God wasn’t happy with his creation of man so he sent a great flood to cleanse the earth. There is one man that god wasn’t disappointed by and his name was Noah. God instructed Noah to build an ark to save him and all of the animals. God told Noah that he would send two of each animal to the ark. Two of every animal arrived and boarded the ark. God created the flood. There is evidence of the flood all over. The flood would’ve caused any plants or animals that aren’t capable of living in the water to die. Many of the dead animals would become fossils. Thousands of fossils have been recovered. If you are flying in a plane and you look out the window the land would most likely like almost like it’s wrinkled. The flood lasted about a year and drained off quickly which is probably what caused the land to look like it does now. There is evidence that god does exist and that the stories in the bible are true.
God is the creator. He is how it all began. I strongly believe that he is real. To me the big bang makes no sense. It is all made up. God is what started everything.

Scorpia Rising Plot

Authors Note: We were required to write an assignment demonstrating our knowledge of plot structure. I wrote about the plot structure in the book “Scorpia Rising” by Anthony Horowitz.

A well constructed plot involves five steps, exposition, rising actions, climax, falling actions, and resolution.

The first part of a plot is the Exposition, also known as the introduction. The introduction establishes who the main characters are, the setting, the point of view, and the main conflicts. The exposition in “Scorpia Rising” establishes the main conflict that the rest of the story is based on. In the beginning of the story there is a man working for a national criminal organization called Scorpia. He goes to a museum to meet a client. On the way out of the meeting the man is ambushed by British intelligence agency MI6. The man manages to escape. He meets with other members of Scorpia and they developed a plan. Their plan involved getting MI6 to send the main character, Alex rider on a mission. While he was on that mission they were going to capture him and torture him then kill him. MI6 fell into the trap and sent Alex on the mission. This is the introduction. It shows who the main character is (Alex), the point of view is also displayed, both narrative and from Alex’s point of view, and the setting is established. This part of the story is in fact the introduction.

After the introduction comes Rising Actions. Rising Actions are events that take place leading up to the climax. There were many Rising Actions in this story. In my opinion one rising action lead up to the climax more than the others. Alex followed the man that he was spying on to an unknown destination. Alex was almost killed by a bomb when he reached the destination. When he got back to his apartment
Jack(Alex’s house keeper/guardian) was gone. There was a note telling him to go to a cemetery about an hour away from his apartment if he wants to see Jack again. The note was signed “Scorpia”, they had kidnapped jack. Alex did as he was told and was at the destination at the set time. This is an example of a rising action from the story

The Rising Actions are followed by the Climax. The Climax of a story is known as the “point of no return”, which means that there is no going back. The Climax in this story is when Alex goes to the destination Scorpia requested. Now that he is in their hands there is no going back. He can’t just decide to leave whenever he wants, and if he didn’t come they would ill Jack which would have made things never the same for Alex again. There is no going back from where he is now which means that that is the “point of no return”. This part of the story is the climax.

The next part of plot structure is falling actions. Falling actions are events that lead from the climax to the resolution. The main falling action in this story was when Alex managed to escape from where he was being held by Scorpia. After escaping Alex stopped Scorpia from assassinating the secretary of state. This is a falling action because they lead from the climax to the resolution.

The resolution comes last on a plotline. The resolution is when the main conflict is finally solved. The resolution in this story is that Scorpia’s plans had failed and Alex is able to go back home alive. The main conflict is solved at this point which means that this is the resolution.

The elements of plot structure were easily identifiable in this book.