RJ6~呂杰

呂杰 bourgeoisie 49774212 Basic information of the book: Book title: The Secret Garden Author: France Hodgson Burnett Retold: Clare West Illustrator: Jenny Brackley Publishing company: Oxford Word level: 1000 words Year of publishing: 1993 Number of pages: 72 A 9-year-old girl, Mary, moved to London from India. Because her parents were died from disease, she stayed in her uncle's big lonely house. Mary was an unruly girl when she was in India. She didn't have any friends. She played by herself in the garden. After she moved to London, she changed. She played outdoors and made friends, a gardener, a robin and a servant's brother, Dickson. With their company, she became stronger and healthier. But the old house had some secrets. It had a secret garden, which was shut and locked. Little Mary was interested in it, one day the robin helped her open the door. Mary planted flowers and enjoy herself in the garden. There was still something strange in the house. Mary always heard loud cries at nights. One day, she decided to follow the crying sound and she discovered a little boy lying on the bed. He was Mary's cousin, Colin. He had a backache. His back is too weak to support his body. After knowing his situation, Mary tried her best to help Colin. Mary, Dickson and Colin spent their time in the secret garden. With their company, Colin got stronger and stronger. Finally, Colin could stand up and walk. This time, I chose an easier book. I can learn how to use easy words to describe a story. But I think the book is a little bit too easy. The rewriter wrote the book briefly. I think she wrote more detailed things, then I will enjoy reading it more. I think the story is not attractive enough to me. Perhaps I prefer romantic and scary novels to the others. J

RJ6陳彥伶

Name: Matilda
Author: Roald Dahl
Illustrator: Quentin Blake

Publishing company: Penguin Group

Year of publishing: 1996.1997

Page: six chapters (finish the novel)

The six chapters I read were: Miss Honey's Cottage, Miss Honey's story, The names, The practice, The Third Miracle, A New Home

After watching Matilda's magic power, Miss Honey decided to take Matilda home and discussed about this with her. To Matilda's astonishment，Miss Honey lived in a small cottage which located in a remote place. The room in the cottage was as small and square and bare as a prison cell. The only objects in the entire room were two upturned wooden boxes to serve as chairs and a third box between them for a table. Matilda hardly believed that here was where Miss Honey lived. She wondered that there must be something very strange going on around here. At the next chapter, Miss Honey told the whole story to Matilda to explain how it happened, including why she lived in this poor cottage.

It turns out that Miss Trunchbull is Miss Honey's aunt! And she brought Miss Honey up! She stole the legacy of Miss Honey. Matilda then using her magic power to scare Miss Trunchbull and made her give the legacy back to Miss Honey. At the end of the story, Matilda's father was found out that he is a receiver of stolen cars from all over the country so he decided to run away to Spain. Matilda doesn't want to go with her families. At last, her father agrees to let her live with Miss Honey.

Although it sounds a little unreasonable, it is a happy ending. And I also glad that I have finished an English novel during this semester. Writing reading journal trained my writing skill regularly. In conclusion, the book Matilda makes me more flexible when facing difficulties. It is a good novel not only funny but also meaningful.

49777034陳彥伶

RJ6黃韻如

A Christmas Carol Author: Charles Dickens Retold by Michael Dean Publishing company: Penguin Readers Year of publishing: This edition first published 2000 Word level: elementary (600 words) Number of pages: 37 Scrooge was a cold, hard man. He loved money, and he didn't like people. One Christmas Eve, seven years after his friend, Marley's death, the ghost of Marley came to his house. The ghost warned him that if he does not change his ways, he will suffer Marley's fate, but Scrooge's fate would be even worse. He will walk the earth eternally after death, invisible among his fellow men, burdened with chains… But Marley's ghost wanted to help him. That night, some ghosts visited him. They showed him his past, his life now, and a possible future. From his past, he was reminded how his love of money lost him the love of his life, Belle, and the happiness this cost him. From his life now, He was shown what others think of him. From his possible future, he found that beore he dead, nobody loved him and nobody will feel sad for his death. He learned lessons from the three ghosts and promised to be kind at Christmas, be kind all year. And then he will change his future! 49777011 黃韻如 [Jet]

RJ6朱育瑩

The Queen of Death Author：John Milne Illustrator：Peter Dennis This edition published 1996 The first edition published 1979 Publishing company：Heinemann Number of pages：79 Level：Intermediate The period of Ancient Egypt's civilization lasted from 3000BC to 500BC. The queens and kings believed after they died they'll go on a long, new journey. Their bodies were prepared for that as well as valuable jewels and beautiful things. Queen Axtarte, who was afraid of tomb robbers, had her tomb made on the east bank of the Nile River because all the other tombs were on the west side. She made a curse："These are my words：Anyone who enters my tomb - anyone who steals from my tomb – anyone who touches my body - that person will die a terrible death. And many more shall die with him." In the story, there were two groups that wanted to steal it. One is a gang named Amsterdam Ring. They menaced Dr. Farrow, who knew the tomb well, to take them to the tomb and then smuggle them to Europe and America to make money. The other is an antiquities collector named Dr. Jusef Strengel who wanted the antiquities of his own. Salahadin El Nur, Chief Inspector in the Egyptian Police, with the help of many other people and his unexpected tricky moves, stopped the two groups from taking it away. I like this story because it makes me go on reading without interruptions. I was so nervous and thought that the villains may take the treasures away even if I knew it won't happen. I learned more vocabularies and phrases such as ''smuggle''、''roundabout''、''foreign number plate" and so on. I found myself more efficient this time! Reading English novels really helps me a lot! By the way, Happy New Year! 49777071 [JeT] 朱育瑩

RJ6陳宣汝

Name of the Book:Just in Case
Author:Meg Rosoff
Published by:Penguin Group
Year of publishing:2006
Pages:248

Charlie Case, David Case's little brother, who has just learned to walk. In a sunny day, Charlie walked into the David's room, and climbed onto the window sill. He saw the green,green grass, some beautiful flowers, a clear blue sky, the flying birds, etc. When the little birds flew past in front of his face, Charlie thought the little birdie was talking to him. It seemed that the birdie was saying " Why not fly?" After seeing this colourful and energetic world, Charlie was so excited. Then, he reached his arms out to the sky and prepare to fly...... Just the moment, David rushed to his little brother to grab him down and held him tight in his arms. David was so shocked! His shirt was soaked in sweat and he tried to calm down. But Charlie didn't know about anything, he just kept saying "Bir...die". David watched this little guy, and started to wondering "What if I didn't come just in time?". This thought kept in his mind and dragged him under.

From that day, the day David saved his younger brother's life, David wanted to control his own life. So he changed his name, and the way he looks. He left home and met a series of strange and extraordinary misadventures.

Wow,wow,wow! I'm so glad that I started to read the 3rd book in this semester. Though this is the last reading journal in this semester, I will read this book 'til the last page. While reading the novel, I found that I read a little bit slowly. I think maybe it's that this book is written by British English. Some words are quite different from the American English. But as I read more, I trust I will get used to it.


49778003 陳宣汝

RJ6黃怡慈

English Reading Journal 6
The Moon is Down
Author: John Steinbeck
Retold by: M. J. Paine
Publishing Company: Heinemann Guided Readers
Year of publishing: 1992
Word Level: Intermediate (1600 words)
Number of pages: 80

It is wartime. A small town is invaded by the enemy. The mayor
of the town, Orden, met the invaders' leader, Colonel Lancer. Colonel
was very smart to use the way of making soldiers live in the mayor's
house to let people in the town think that the mayor was helping the
invaders. Orden was surprised that the shopkeeper, Corell, was the
man who sent the information of the town to the invader. The war was
never end which was what Colonel thought, because he try the miner to
death. The unfair treatments the invaders had done made the people
angry. They didn't always treat them back immediately, but the people
would use their own force to make the invaders feel the trouble they
were going to face.
I didn't like such a serious story, but it can help me consider a
few war problems. The war is terrible, and it is worse to fight to
both of the winner and loser. There is no always winner in the war.
People start the war because of some benefits. In this story, the
invader is asking for the mine. Did they realy got the benefit by
invading other towns? Didn't they cost the soldiers' lives or any
other things? The invader would not get the peace if they never stop
invading.
There are some good sentences in the novel. For instance, "A
man must not think about living or about dying. He must think about
whether he is doing right or wrong." After reading this story I
conclude that the more difficulties the man confronts, the braver he
will be.

黃怡慈49777064

RJ6楊于萱

THE CLIENT ★ Basic information of the book Author：John Grisham Retold：Janet McAlpin Series Editor：Andy Hopkins and Jocelyn Potter Publishing and distributed by Person Education Limited Word level：Intermediate (1700 words) Classification：Contemporary British English Number of Pages：56 It's a crime novel. Mark Sway was eleven and he knew a terrible secret. He wanted to prevent a man from committing suicide. Yet, he didn't know that he was involved in an awful situation. The man was a lawyer of Mafia, a secret crime group killing a senator. He told Mark where the body was hidden when he was dead drunk. Mark escaped immediately. Then the lawyer put the gun in his mouth, closed his eyes and fired. Both FBI and Mafia were concerned about the death and the boy. Some secret were so dangerous it's better not to tell. But then, it's just as dangerous if you didn't. The reason why I appreciated this novel was that the plot was close to our life. The writer was also a lawyer. Therefore, he characterized various lawyers as a name－chaser, a weakling, a man of integrity successfully. I'm the KING of the CASTLE ★ Basic information of the book Author：Susan Hill Retold：Jim Alderson Series Editor：John Milne Illustrator：Bob Harvey Publishing and distributed by Heinemann Word level：Intermediate (1600 words) Number of Pages：68 The title of the story, I'm the King of the Castle, comes from the words used in an English children's game. The children race to climb up a rock or a wall. The one who gets to the top first shouts out; "I'm the king of the castle." Edmund's mother was dead and he lived with his father. One day, Edmund's father brought a woman whom he loved and her son, Kindshaw to live together. However, Edmund was unkind to Kingshaw and scared him. Even worse, Kingshaw saved Edmund's life several time. Yet, Edmund accused him a murder trying to kill him. No one believed Kingshaw even his mother. He hated everything and tried to escape. Therefore, he walked into a middle of stream. Then he lay down slowly and put his face under the water. He breathed very slowly and carefully… I didn't like this story at all. The evil boy won in the end. He smiled and thought he won when he saw Kingshaw's body in the water. Maybe the author wanted us to think why Edmund was cruel to Kingshaw and didn't feel regret? RAIN MAN ★ Basic information of the book Author：a novel by LEONORE FLEISCHER Retold：Kieran McGovern Series Editor：Andy Hopkins and Jocelyn Potter Publishing and distributed by Person Education Limited Word level：Pre-Intermediate (1200 words) Classification：Contemporary British English Number of Pages：39 The story came as a complete surprise to me. Charlie Babbitt had a bad relationship with his rich father. One day, he got a phone call about his father's death. He went to the funeral and met a lawyer, John Mooney. Mr. Mooney began to read the will. "To Charlie, I give my 1949 Buick and also give him my roses." He couldn't believe what he had heard,"My friend Dr. Bruner will look after my house and all my money for me." He made up his mind to fight for his money. Therefore, he found Dr. Bruner. And it was the same time he met Raymond, who was the brother Charlie never knew. The two men met and that was the start of a surprising new life for both of them. Raymond saw danger everywhere. That was why he did things in the same way everyday. However, he was a very intelligent person in some ways. They got along with each other for few weeks. Finally, Charlie remembered deep into his past－Raymond was Rain Man, his friend when he was a baby. The whole story was unexpected. I appreciated this heart－warming story, the brotherly affection really touched me. Each plot astonished me that I didn't think of this kind of situation before. This novel had been adapted for the movie. Besides, the actor who showed Raymond's strange world in a successful way won the Oscar for Best Actor. Extensive free reading project was one of my favorite things to do in class. In fact, I set a goal to read English novels as many as I could in the last summer vacation. Professor's project made me stick at it. I didn't choose the highest level to read. Therefore, I feel great and encouraged when I was reading, and I was proud of myself after finishing each book. I'll try thicker ones in the winter vacation. I'm sure that I'll do my best to keep free reading a habit in the future. 楊于萱49774213