BOOK REVIEW "PARANOID PARK"

Paranoid Park is a young adult novel by Blake Nelson. It was published in 2006 and it is a psycho thriller.
Blake Nelson grew up in Portland, attended Wesleyan University and graduated from New York University. He is an American author of adult and children’s literature.

First of all I want to start with the content of the book. Once the narrator and his best friend Jared go to Paranoid Park for skating.
Another weekend they also want to go to Paranoid Park, but Jared is invited to a party, so the narrator goes there by himself. He hops a train with one of the urchins he just met there and a really horrible accident happens. This causes a lot of problems for the narrator…
In my opinion it is a really good written book, because the reader doesn’t really know what happens next.
Now I want to go on with the main character. The main character has no name, so I call him narrator.
At the beginning of the book the narrator is a normal guy who has a lot of fun with skating and hanging around with friends, he is also good at school. After the accident he changes into a introverted guy which isn’t able to talk to anybody about his problems.
From my point of view Blake Nelson created a really interesting and multifarious main character.
The style of writing is very interesting because it’s sometimes written in letter form. It’s a nice change when you look at the normal writing style.??
It's different from other writing styles.
I assume that this book wants to show us what happens when you do illegal things. There are a lot of situations where teens doesn’t think about what could happen. This book wants us to show what could happen when people, not only children, are irresponsible!

I entrust this book to everyone who likes thrilling books, which are written in a different way. Finally I want to say that I really enjoyed reading this book.
My rate is 9.5 from 10 points.

Correction of the first exam

Hof 4
6833 Fraxern
24^th November

board of directors
20b Camp Street
1972 Camping Town

Dear Sir / Madame,

Job application

I’m writing in response to your advertisement for the job as a person who takes care of children.

I’m writing because I’m especially interested in working with children. I’m also a very athletic person and I can also meet deadlines.
Another positive thing is that I’m good at organization.
From 2006 to 2008 I worked in a kindergarten. On weekends I worked as a babysitter in various families.
So I can deal with problems kids can have and I think I also know what they want to do.

I would welcome the opportunity to discuss my application with you. I look forward to hearing from you and I can be reached at any time.

Yours sincerely, Ines Peter

Enclosed:
cv

Hof 4
6833 Fraxern
24^th November 2008

Dear Joana,

I’m writing this letter, because I want tell you how much problems we have in our family at the moment. Jack hates me, because I’ve told dad about this venereal infection, but I only wanted to help him. So I honestly don’t know what his problem is.
Another problem is dad. I’m really scared of him. I was really appalled when I saw how dad reacted when I told him about Jack’s problem. I also want to tell you about mum. I know that she’s our provider, but we hardly ever see each other, only at night. She wants to talk to me in kitchen, but I’m not interested in such conversations.
One very important thing is the problem between mum and dad. I hope they won’t get divorced, I’m really anxious about that.
My biggest problem is how to solve the problems.
I think I should talk with Jack and apologize that I told dad.
Do you think I should talk with mum, because she’s never at home?
I also should talk with dad, but every time he assumes the worst. The last thing I want to tell you is how to solve their marital crisis. I don’t know a solution for this. In my opinion their biggest problem is that dad often boasts with his sexual exploits in the past. I doubt they will manage it, but I hope so.

I think this letter is boring for you, but I feel happy after talking about it with you.

Love, Ines

Virgins: Suzy

First I want to describe Suzy’s character and her looks. In the play, her looks aren’t really described. So almost everything I tell is a part of my imagination.
Suzy is about 40 years old, which is mentioned at the beginning of the play. In my opinion she wears classic clothes such as a trouser suit. My idea of her looks is that she is thin with long blond curly hair.

Now I want to go on with Suzy’s character. In my opinion she’s a classic workaholic, because in the play Nick accuses her that she always works and that she hasn’t got any time for him. I also think she’s a bit frigid, because in every Sunday morning scene she seemes to be really unenthusiastic concerning sex.

Now I want to go on with the acting of Suzy in the play. Suzy always quarrels with Nick, I think they have a major marital crisis. In my opinion it’s obvious that Suzy always defends the kids. If we look at their sex problem, Suzy’s excuse is that she is tired. In the play Nick reproach Suzy for being cold. I think that Nick is right, for this part.
Also a very important fact about the acting of her is, that she always shows Nick up in front of the kids. For example at the end of the play when she asks him about is affairs with women.

At the end I want to talk about Suzy’s relationship to the others. Suzy’s the mother of two kids, Jack (17) and Zoe (15), and the wife of Nick.
In my assessment Suzy tries hard to know her kids, but they don’t have a good relationship to thier mother, because she is always at work. For instance Jack tells Suzy in the wood, that it is only possible to talk to her in kitchen at night. On the other hand Suzy seems to talk with Zoe quite often. As to Nick, I think she shouldn’t work as much as she does now because she doesn’t know Nick anymore. In the whole play they are always fighting. They have a major marital crisis, I think.

SPEAK

BOOK REVIEW

"Speak" is one of Laurie Halse Anderson´s four award-winning novels and was initial published in 1999 by the penguin group, USA.
Anderson resides in Mexico with her beloved husband, Scot Larrabee. She has four children and one creature with fangs, her German Shepard. When not writing, Anderson enjoys gardening, knitting and running. Many of her fans and friends read about her experiences in and out of the literature world on her blog.
Speak is a novel about an 14 year old girl, named Melinda Sordino, who got raped at a school party. Laurie Halse Anderson told, that the character of Melinda came to her in nightmare.

In the summer before her freshman year of high school, Melinda Sordino calls the police and they break up a local party, resulting in arrests. Mr. Freeman helps her and she begins to express her pain through art. When her former best friend, Rachel, begins dating Andy, who raped her, Melinda feels obligated to show her story. The response is intense hostility, but eventually Rachel admit the truth and dumps Andy.

Melinda really needs help, but nobody knows that because she doesn’t speak. Melinda gets in trouble a few times, first when she stats to skip school.

In this story Melinda has a difficult time to go through. All the other high school kids belonged to a club or something, but Melinda didn’t. Melinda became a social outcast and she also felt outcasted in normal life.

As the school year comes to a close, Melinda returns to bring the things she left inside her together. Andy confronts her, telling her that she lied about the assault, saying that he did not hurt her and that she asked for it. He suggests that jealousy of his relationship with Rachel was her motivation for "lying" about the rape, and he attempts to assault her again, despite her physical attempt to stop him. This is a major turning point for Melinda because while telling Andy "no" before the first assault she was too intoxicated for it to come out forcefully. The lacrosse team, including Melinda's former friend Nicole, hears her scream in the closet and comes to her aid.

As the student body hears the story and realizes the truth about what happened at the party, Melinda goes from social pariah to something of a hero.

I really like the fact that Melinda overcomes her fear and that she was able to do that all by herself.
A also like that the book is written really realistic and in modern speak.

DESCRIBING THE MAIN CHARAKTER

Not only the others see Melinda as an outcast, she sees herself as an outcast too. In the book she talks several times about the fact that she hasn’t got anybody to talk with or a friend. She also talks about that the she isn’t well dressed and the others, like the Marthas, which are really special dressed.

Melinda isn’t very self-confident and she doesn’t know how to show the other herself. I think one important sentence in the book is this: “It's easier not to say anything. Shut your trap, button your lip, can it. All that crap you hear on TV about communication and expressing feelings is a lie. Nobody really wants to hear what you have to say.” I think Anderson wants to express with this sentence that she also thinks that the other doesn’t want to know why she doesn’t speak anymore. In her opinion nobody likes her, but this is definitely wrong. For example it is shown in the story that her art teacher Mr. Freeman really likes her and also Ivy an old friend of her likes her a lot.

In school she has only a few person to talk with. Sometimes she talks with her lab partner or Ivy.
She also hasn’t got a close relationship to her parents, they are really busy. The only way they talk to each other is a piece of paper at the fridge.
At the beginning of the book Melinda meets Heather, but soon she tells her that she doesn’t want to be a friend of Melinda.
Mr. Freeman, her art teacher, helps Melinda by his own way. He wants that she expresses her pain with art.

The others doesn’t like her because she called the cops at the party. But I think o lot of them like Melinda, they don’t talk to Melinda because nobody do it.

I think that there wasn’t any change till the scene when Andy Evans tries to hurt her again, but Melinda was able to defend herself. At this time, I think, she became stronger and finally, because of this situation, she gets strong enough to talk about her rape.
After this scene she changed herself enormous. That’s the only thing which isn’t really realistic, because nobody is able to overcome this from one second to the other.
The best example for changing her is in my opinion art. In the book is shown how her trees develop. She compares herself with Picasso when she thought about all the parts she has to go through till she overcomes.

Globalization

Are there any Austrian multinationals? Find some information on the three biggest!

Vienna, April 2003 – More than 1,000 international companies have set up their Central and Eastern European headquarters or business hubs in Austria, underlining the country’s leadership in business outreach to the CEE region. These include prominent multinationals such as Alcatel, Beiersdorf, Bosch, Coca-Cola, Flextronics, Generali, Henkel, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Master Foods, McDonalds, Miele, SIG Combibloc and Siemens.

The most popular multinationals in Austria are Rauch, Omicron, Doppelmayr.

Now I want to explain what there assignment is.

• Rauch is famous for it’s fruit juice, I think there most popular drink is “Red Bull”.
• Omicron is a technical company, which produces “Laserdiodensysteme” and “Laserapplikationen”
• Doppelmayr: This is a worldwide company which builds cable cars and elevators. It’s products are even copied in Asia


Are there groups that are against globalisation? Why?

A few groups which are against globalisation exist.
The biggest one is “Anti-Globalisation”.
They cause it with the fact that little undertakings won’t survive. There are going to be only a few big corporations.


How can you as a consumer support Fair Trade?

For supporting “Fair Trade” you should buy things which were produced by people who get enough money for work. For example don’t buy things which were produced in India. In India it’s very often produces from kids and no one should support child labour.


How is employment in Austria affected by globalisation? Are other areas affected too?

A few peoples say that the globalization reduces the Inflation, because since the globalization is growing that fast, the Inflation got smaller. But for Austria the textile industry is nearly dead. Almost all concerns closed because other counties are able to produce cheaper than Austria.


Your opinion on globalization

On my opinion globalization is a very important thing and it’s good, but there are also bad things about it. I also think globalization keeps the world together.
Because I think that if there would be no globalization one country would be the best, because it gets enough money for researching new things, and poor countries wouldn’t. That’s my main reason for globalization.

Correction (writing task)

Hello, my name is Ines Peter. Hoping for a good day, I want to welcome you.
We start our tour at the bus station “Drummer Street”. First I want to show you “Whipple Museum” and give you some background information. “Whipple Museum” is a history of science museum and it’s open from Monday to Friday from 12:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The admission is free.

I think that’s enough information for now.
During the walk I want to give you some information about Cambridge. Cambridge is first founded in 1630, but the important history started in 1902, when Americans occupy Cambrige.
We have reached Nowning Street now. As soon as we get to the museum, you will get the time to eat something in the eatery nearby. After that little stop we walk along “Prembroke Street” to “Corpus Christi College”, which was founded in 1352. If you’re interested, there is a nice court in the middle that I could show you. Beside the college there is a very good restaurant, despite the small prices.

In the afternoon, let’s say 2 p.m., we will meet again.

Hello, welcome back. Now let’s go on the market, for doing some shopping.
I can see your bags, let’s move on to “Trinity College” which is very famous. It’s very old and inside it’s amazing, but we haven’t got enough time to look at this gorgeous house.

Now we walk along “Jesus Lane” to our next stop “Wesley House” which houses the Methodist university.
It’s a fact that John Paul II was studying theology at this place.
Follow me to the last stop, the biggest shopping centre in Cambridge.
It houses every shop you can think of. Get our money out, there are enough shops for everyone, guys.
Please come back to this place in two and a half hours. We are going to finish our tour then.
Welcome back! We need about ten minutes to get back to the bus station.
Here we are.

I hope you will have a great holiday in Cambridge and I want to thank for this great day.

A virtual tour threw the "Rheintal"

The “Rheintal” is a valley in Austria or to be more exact it is a valley in Vorarlberg, which is a part of Austria. The “Rheintal” is named by a river which runs through this valley.

I want to start our virtual tour in Feldkirch, the biggest city in the “Rheintal”. There are a lot of shopping streets and there is also the cathedral which is the largest church in Vorarlberg. Also very famous are the “Katzenturm” and the “Schattenburg”, they are built about the 15^th century. I really like the “Schattenburg”, now there is a restaurant in it and I’m of the opinion that there is a really good restaurant with an enchanting ambience.
Beside the “Katzenturm” there is a bus stop. We have to get into bus 60 towards Götzis. At the bus stop which is named “Weiler Gemeindeamt” we have to get out. We have to get into the bus 63 towards Fraxern.
Fraxern is the place where I live. Fraxern is renowned for their cherries. Fraxern is a beautiful place to go for a walk. There are a lot of footpath. We can walk to “Maiensäß” which needs about one and a half hour from the last bus stop.
If we get hungry there are two restaurants and one pizzeria, you can eat quite good there.
Now we have to get in the bus 62 towards Weiler and then we have to change in bus 60 towards Götzis and now we go by train towards Bregenz and we get out at the station Hohenems.
There are a lot of interesting places like the palace or the Jewish museum or the Jewish cemetery.
We finish our tour at the open-air pool “Rheinauen”. Which is nearby the river “Rhein”.

291 words