A6 (with Ann): Tragedy in Pet Shops

When we pass by pet shops, our eyes fall on adorable dogs in the cages, but we would never truly know how these puppies come from. They are not natively born to be purebred, look attractive and get beautiful fur. A particular male dog and a particular female dog are arranged and forced to pair. Breeding farms are not as comfortable as pet shops. We are supposed to know the tragedy behind the stores.

Ann:

I’m going to uncover the pitiable truth about dog breeding. The merchandisers know that people would buy dogs with beautiful fur colors or pure breeds. Therefore, they would intentionally match the dogs of good breeds, and the puppies would be more gratifying. The cages those dogs stay in would be decided by different breeds in order to be easily recognized by people. They would inject the drug, the aphrodisiac, into the bodies of the female dogs to attract male dogs. The duration that a mature female dog is pregnant and finally gives birth to puppies is about sixty to sixty-five days. That’s about two months. After a month of break, the merchandisers would have the female dogs injected and impregnated again. As a result, we could easily figure out that the female dogs will gradually get tired. Once the female dogs couldn’t give birth anymore, the merchandisers would put them in the cages without any food and water, just leaving them dead there, or if the merchandisers happen to leave for another place tomorrow, they will take those female dogs, put them into a big black bag and throw them away.

The puppies will be classified and checked whether they are healthy or not, and those sick puppies will be abandoned. The probability of abnormal puppies are high since the breeds of mating dogs are close. Hence, the merchandisers want to sell those healthy puppies as fast as they can because they’re not sure whether those puppies would have undiscovered disease and would survive or not. If the puppies aren’t sold out, the good ones would be kept to be the mating dogs. The others would be thrown away.

Their “homes”, the cages, are dirty and small. The space of the cage is only enough to let the dogs stand or lie prone, and the cage is easily getting hotter or colder when the weather changes. The merchandisers don’t take care of those dogs when their nails grow long, so their nails are easily stuck in the cage. When they stand in the cage, the long nails would prick in their soles. It would cause their feet to bleed.

The food is basically rotted rice bran with chicken feed. Also, the merchandisers wouldn’t clean the dogs’ excrement, so the environment is dirty and easily attracts many bugs and mosquitos to bite them. Even, when they feel bored or painful, they couldn’t bark because the merchandisers have already used a steel tube to pierce into their throats and make them hoarse.

Eileen:

My family keeps two dogs. One was a stray dog. She appeared in my elementary school when I was in my third grade. My school called 119 to take her away. I saw fire fighters put her in a big gunny, she struggling with unwillingness as well as tension. I was so young that I didn’t consider how they treated her was a blameful deed. I didn’t take pity on her. Now, I feel shame on myself badly. Later, I saw her show up again in my community. I guessed those fire fighters just released her somewhere not close to my school, but she came back as you can tell. Then, I called her and let her come to my house. I simply thought she was special and extremely cute so I wanted to keep her. When I recall the decision to let her be my family, I think without no doubt, I was right. Another dog in my house was brought back home by my older sister. He was not bought from a pet shop but adopted from an organization. My sister told me that there are many dogs that need a house to live and someone to love them.

        Those puppies in pet shops are naïve and showing shining eyes but their parents are suffering great pain in other places we don’t know. If we want to stop what we see in breeding farms, please don’t get moved easily by pretty puppies in the stores. Furthermore, if we are eager to raise dogs, think about those stray dogs and please give them a sweet home.

A5: The Adjective, Filial

    This word, “filial,” has two meanings. If we look it up in a dictionary, we realize one meaning is being a son or a daughter of parents; the other is showing devotion and reverence to parents. In the following, I’m going to discuss the second meaning and what a person looks like when being filial from my viewpoint.

    “Filial” could be put before affection and obedience and form phrases, that is, filial affection and filial obedience. Filial affection means that a person has a heart of love toward his or her parents. Meanwhile, filial obedience indicates that a person follows what his or her parents ask him or her to do; in this situation, the person usually considers his or her parents’ advice is right without questioning it.

    I’d like to talk about what I have in my mind about being filial. A person always obeys his or her parents and avoids arguments. Do we regard him or her as a filial son or daughter? My answer to this question is definitely “No.” A person would listen to his or her parents and ponder whether their advice is worth taking or not. If he or she thinks the suggestion is beneficial to him or her, they will follow what their parents tell them. If he or she thinks the advice is wrong, they will try to convey their ideas and tell their parents what they consider and they must be grateful to their parents because they are willing to hear their child’s opinion, not force him or her to obey them all the time. This sort of person is filial in my perspective. I judge whether a person is filial not by his or her obedience to their parents but by his or her gratitude to them.

    Different people give various definitions of “filial.” From my standpoint, my parents have raised me since I was in my mom’s womb. Once I have the capacity for making a living, it is time for me to raise them. I will give my parents what they give me in my early life. That is what I think to be filial.

A4: Home in the North, Home in the South (Final Version)

    

    I have two homes; one is in Pingtung and the other one is in Taipei. I have spent my life living in the former since I was an elementary school student; on the contrary, I have stayed in the latter since the first day of my university life.
    The dimensions of my rooms in different homes are extremely dissimilar. I rent a room in Shilin, Taipei as I study in Soochow University. The room is decent but small. The double-bed doesn’t just belong to me. I can’t stretch my limbs to my heart’s content. I need to share the bed with my roommate. We have got two desks, two closets, one table with one sofa, a TV with a cabinet and the most important one, a bathroom. Those are all we have in our room. The measure of our room is nearly equal to four beds. It is not difficult to imagine the room is filled with the furniture and only left with narrow aisles. To better describe our room, it is a container with jam. On the other hand, my room in Pingtung is super comfortable. I have my own room and the measure is also as big as the one of Taipei’s room. It contains a double-bed, a double-closet, two desks and many shelves except a bathroom. It is bliss to have such room only belonging to me but it is true that sometimes ease will make me become a couch potato and I will leave a great deal of homework unfinished until the expiration date.
    When I stay in different homes, two opposite emotions come to my heart respectively. I stay in Pingtung’s home and I usually think that I want to get out of here. While I stay in Taipei’s home, I miss my home in the south. As I stay with my family, I need to handle my parents’ endless arguments, force my little sister to do her assignments and I am also required to do chores every day. I keep thinking once I leave here, not so many things would bother me then. Yet, when I stay in Taipei, it appears that my life is only about studies and school activities. Someone has taken my family out of my life and I begin to miss them. That’s why I call my mom all the time and ask about how everything is going at home.
    I stay in Taipei’s home and I concrete on studies in order to fight for my future, a decent job. When I go back to the south, it is time to chat with my family. I feel I were a married woman and went back to my parents’ home once a year. During the time living in Taipei, I deal with various things on my own and it is worth learning not to count on my family once I face any hardships.

A3 (with Ann): Make-Up (Final Version)

        Make-up is something that can make you more beauteous. Some people may not look good, but make-up makes them pretty. Some people are born to be lovely and make-up makes them more attractive. That is why make-up has its importance of existence.

Ann and I are interested in cosmetics. Especially, Ann has done more research on it. We usually use make-up to make ourselves look more energetic and certainly, prettier. In the following, Ann is going to show how she usually applies make-up and I am going to be the model for this demonstration.

I wash my face first before I put on make-up. Also, I will apply freshener and moisturizer. These are daily skincare after I wash my face.

The skin of Eileen’s forehead and nose is the oil part, and the skin of her chins is dry and sensitive. If we don’t take precautions to prevent her skin from being exposed to the sun, the ray will do harm to her skin. Therefore, use the sunscreen first. Here I choose these two kinds of sunscreen. Each has a different function. I would use the pink one on the oil part of her face and this can help her to control and delay the time that the oil comes out from her face. The white one is good for the dry part of her face because it is moisturizing.

The next is the foundation. The foundation can hide her pores, make her face smooth and the color of her face skin would be even. It is essential to decide which color of the foundation you are going to use. We need to choose the same color as your skin color instead of choosing the whiter one, or it would be odd and the color would be different from the skin color of your neck. Put the foundation on the back of the hand. We don’t need to use too much of the foundation. A shape like a yellow pea is enough. Put the foundation on her face, use the fingers to spread it and the temperature of my hand would make her make-up stay on her face perfectly.

Use light powder foundation to control the oil of her face and also conceal the blemish on her face.

Then, use the loose powder. Take the brush to wipe over her face lightly.

Finally, put on the light blush to give her a feeling of vividness and freshness.

As for the part of her eyes, she luckily has long eyelashes and big round eyes, so I don’t want to put on any make-up on this part.

To give her a bright spot on her face, her lips are definitely an important part. Now we are still students, so I choose to use the lip balm to moisturize her lips and give her face a look of energy.

        After putting on make-up, I feel prettier since my pores, acnes and blemish are concealed and I feel that I can walk on the street confidently. When I get up early in the morning, I tend to have a sleepy face. Make-up does me a favor. I look more energetic under the magic of cosmetics. Make-up is like clothes, shoes or other things that we wear. We put on those fascinating clothing to make ourselves look pretty girls. By the same token, we put on make-up to make ourselves beauties.

A4: Home in the North, Home in the South

    I have two homes; one is in Pingtung and the other one is in Taipei. I have spent my life living in the former since I was an elementary school student, little and naive. I have stayed in the latter since the first day of my university life.

    The dimensions of my rooms in different homes are extremely contrary. I rent a room in Shilin, Taipei since I study in Soochow University. The room is decent but small. The double-bed doesn’t just belong to me. I can’t stretch my limbs to my heart’s content. I need to share the bed with my roommate. We have got two desks, two closets, one table with one sofa, a TV with a cabinet and the most important one, a bathroom. That is all we have in our room. The measure of our room is nearly equal to four beds. It is not difficult to imagine the room is filled with the furniture and only left with narrow aisles. To better describe our room, it is a container with jam. On the other hand, my room in Pingtung is super comfortable. I have my own room and the measure is also as big as the one of Taipei’s room. It contains a double-bed, a double-closet, two desks and many shelves except a bathroom. It is bliss to have such room only belonging to me but it is true that sometimes ease will make me become a couch potato and I would leave a great deal of homework unfinished until the expiration date.

    When I stay in different homes, two opposite emotions come to my heart respectively. I stay in Pingtung’s home and I usually think that I want to get out of here. While I stay in Taipei’s home, I miss my home in the south. As I stay with my family, I need to handle my parents’ endless arguments, force my little sister to do her assignments and do chores every day. I keep thinking once I leave here, not so many things would bother me then. Yet, when I stay in Taipei, it appears that my life is only about studies and school activities. Someone has taken my family out of my life and I begin to miss them. That’s why I call my mom all the time and ask about how everything is going at home.

    I stay in Taipei’s home and I concrete on studies in order to fight for my future, a decent job. When I go back to the south, it is time to chat with my family. I feel I were a married woman and went back to my parents’ home once a year. During the time living in Taipei, I deal with various things on my own and it is worth learning not to count on my family once I face any hardships.