Marsha Chan, Mission College
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AEG Chapter 2 Verbs in the Past Time Frame
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Subject: My trip in Corsica
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Have you ever been on an island ? Two summers ago, I had an opportunity to visit Corsica,a small island of France, with my husban and my daughter. This island is named "A mountain in the middle of the sea". Thus, on the winded road, we could see the rainbow sun ray reflecting on the picturesque cliff and on the deep blue sea. The beaches with white sand and transparent water allowed us to distinguish multicolor fish swimming. The water was so warm that we paddled all long day with pleasure. Once, while we were climbing and hiking in the mountain, we were surprised by a magnificent waterfall tumbling and forming a small pool at the bottom.After we enjoyed bathing in this natural pool, we tasted sausage and salami, the local product, at a hut restaurant nearby.
I'll never forget this wonderful trip. Next time, if I have opportunities to travel, I hope I could visit the other paradise islands of the world.
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Subject: Discovery in a business conference
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I went to an international conference called Flexible Display Conference in Phoenix, Arizona in February 2004 and learned about many impressive technologies. The conference was held by United States Display Consortium and the topics included flexible TFT substrates, flexible electronic displays and some related issues. There was also an exhibition for attendants to demonstrate what they had been working on. Philips, the leading technology company in Europe, introduced an innovative product called electronic paper which was as light and thin as paper and whose content can be uploaded through a modem line or a satellite network. In the exhibition, the demonstrator operated the electronic paper while he was pretending to be on the phone in a subway train. This invention drew a lot of attentions and Philips was working with a Californian company to launch the product next year. The introduction of this product was expected to replace current newspapers and revolutionize people's lifestyles. In order to lower the cost, related companies had been working on flexible TFT substrates, such as plastics, to be incorporated in the electronic paper.
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Subject: The Muse concert.
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Last Tuesday was one of the happiest days in my life. My friend and I bought concert tickets to the performance of our favorite band - "Muse". As the concert was approaching closer and closer, my mood was getting better and better. After I got out from school I went home and started to get ready for the concert. I got my permission from the teacher lo leave my class earlier. While I was dreaming about the evening my friend came and we headed to San Francisco. There were many people in front of the entrance. Some of them were waiting in line to get inside; others were trying to buy tickets and few were distributing them. By the time we got inside one band already had performed. Turned out that the concert consisted of the performances of the three different bands. With usher's help we found our seats, which were located on the balcony in the middle section. When the "Muse" came out they created exciting atmosphere in hall. The performance was great and the band has the charm that made everyone sing aloud and enjoy the show entirely. It was the best concert I have ever been at! I hope I'll remember being there as long as I can.
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Subject: The First Business Trip
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In 2001, I went on my first oversea business trip to Germany for 5 days. There was a large international education exhibition. Before this trip, I had never gone abroad except for my honeymoon; I went on a honeymoon to Hawaii. This trip gave impetus to trable more. My first impression of Germany was that this country wasn't similar to my country. Houses in the city, which I stayed in, were built with different construction materials and had different shapes from my country's houses. Some highways didn't have a speed limit. One morning, I rode a bicycle among big green trees. The soil looked fertile, dark brown, and the air refreshed me in mind and body. I fell in love with Germany without any thought such as the history, politics, economy, and social issues. During the exhibition tour, I met somebody conducting an opinion poll about the exhibition. I was embarrassed because I couldn't answer anything. I couldn't speak any word in English, even yes. In addition, all catalogs were written in English, so I couldn't read them. I regretted giving up studying English. I needed to start studying English again in order to overcome my language obstacle. German's natural environment and culture made me yearned for a foreign country and the exhibition convinced me why should I study English again. I'll never forget that business trip.
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Subject: A trip to Las Vegas with my family
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A trip to Las Vegas with my family
This summer my husband, my daughter, and I went on vacation for Las Vegas. It was only a 2 night 3 days short trip; however I got carried away by going to Les Vagas. For last few years I only had to concentrate on raising my young daughter all by myself since we didn't have our parents or close relatives here to help me. I thought the trip would give me freshness in my ordinary boring life. As soon as we got off plane, we had to fill our stomach first; we hadn't eaten dinner before we got on the plane.After we finished dinner, we rent a car, and drove around the down town Las Vegas. It was three years ago las time I visited here and I found several new hotels. The street was filled with lots of people and excitements. After the short sightseeing, we checked in Excalibur hotel, and slept for tomorrow. Next day I decided to let my husband spend a day gambling. While he was gambling, my daughter and I swam in the hotel pool, and went shopping around. My husband, my daughter, and I joined to go to Hoover Dam. Even though my husband gambled away several hundred dollars, I tried not to ruin my vacation feeling. Finally, I relieved myself that I had the great time.
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Subject: Creative writing
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I had a great fun in a creative writing class that I took last semester. This class introduced me to how to write a fiction novel. First, I began to make up a couple main characters including everything about physical and emotional descriptions such as looks, job, family, and friends. Second, to enrich the settings, I created the location where the story happened, and the weather was also mentioned to help the readers see a real clear picture. Third, to grab the readers' attention, plot was designed to add more drama and strategies to the story. After finishing the story, I transferred the most important ideas from more than five page story to less than ten sentences poetry. In the end, I was fascinated how a novel can turn into a two hour movie.
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Subject: My best vacation
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My best vacation
I can say the trip to Canada on this spring break with my family was the best vacation that I have ever had. I visited my aunt, and then I took the ferry about two hours to Vancouver; a place that attracts most of the tourists with many museums and flowers. I was startled when I first saw the wax characters in the Wax Museum because every things there were look like real. It was very interesting because I could see all the famous people from many different dynasties. The most popular flower in Vancouver is tulip, so I could enjoy thousand different kinds of tulip in Butcher Garden. When I stepped in the garden, I felt like I was standing in front of a colorful poster of wonderful combination. The trip was worth it because I could eat many tropical fruits that I hadn't eaten for long time. I was attracted by many special souvenirs that the local people have sold near by the harbor, so I wish I can go back there.
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Subject: My helpful education
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My education was helpful to me when I applied for a part-time job as a teacher -assistant.There was about one year ago before I came to the U.S. Since I knew I had to immgrate to the U.S.,I was studying at an English trainning center out of school in order to improve my listening & speaking skills.A few weeks later,the foreign teacher asked me to help him with the children's class that he was teaching.He doesn't know Chinese, so he needed a T.A. to help him translate something to the kids and communicate with their parents.Before I came to that center,I 'd learned English for about 5 years at my own school.The English education was helpful with the T.A. job somehow.When I disscussed with the teacher, I was using oral English to talk with him.The grammer skill helped me correct the homework which are students did. I needed to read the textbooks before having classes that used my reading skill.Without the English education I learned at school, I couldn't afford to get the job, and the teacher coundn't ask me to help.I could earn surplus money while I was studying at school.
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Subject: In order to hunt a job,
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I learned from my own experience how to get a job. Job hunter, I would have strategies and plans. First, I determined my skills and abilities; then, I filled out a first root resume. There were some available sources on the website that helped me to optimize an effected resume; indeed, a resume should attract to employers or they are interested when they read it. The root resume changed to an actual resume after I had read job descriptions. Resume was an advertiser my background to employers' personnel. I spent hours to edit, rewrite, and modify up to date before send it to employers. I used computer fax modem to fax my resumes. I purchased a good phone with automatic answering system. I agree with everyone about the first impression; I really cared what I should wear on that day for a job interview. I was always hoping for the best; furthermore, luck was one of the factors that I counted on. Finally, one of those companies called me to work for them. I accepted their offer.
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Subject: My Once Boring Tour
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It happened on April 1999. My wife and I enjoined a tour group to visit Malaysia, and we were pretty excited before we went to an exotic country, but the whole touring agenda and viewpoints planning destroyed our dreaming imagination about a beautiful tropical country. We had been visited a shopping store, a mosque, a casino which is biggest in Asia, and a Dutch style street in a city during the journal. A tremendous thing was also happened on the way to the casino; the touring bus was out of work in the hills, and we had wait for almost two and half hours until another bus coming. The whole tour way designed so boring except for someone who was really like gamble, and my wife and I were definitely not. We love to see some beautiful views, different cultural or customs, and anything new for us, but we didn't get it at all.
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Subject: My Trip
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Last summer, I and my friend had an opportunity to visit hometown, a small city is located at South of Viet Nam. I have not seen my family and relative for a long time. When I got there, I couldn't image the change of the city. The big-tall great buildings were almost grown up; the people with motorcycle were crowded. We took taxi home with heavy suitcases; otherwise, I would ride motorcycle with much danger. I thought this trip would make me fun and interested because we could rather to meet my friends; however, they had moved to many other places to get good education. Therefore, I and my family visited many famous places and restaurants of Viet Nam which food I have never tried before; it's really delicious and spicy. It was three weeks later I decided to ride motorcycle even thought we could get accident any time because the streets are always filled with a lot of people; whatever it was exciting and strange to me. Anyway I had to come back to U.S after a month and this is an unforgettable experience trip to me. If you have a chance to take vacation, I highly recommend you to visit my country which one you will be suprised that other countries don't have.
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Subject: My vacation in Hawaii
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Every summer, we usually take a week for traveling. This summer, my family and I decided to go to Hawaii that have a lot of beautiful beaches and landscapes. On August 28, we flew to Oahu Island that is interested in many tourists because of its warm weather and beautiful resorts in Hawaii. Before we came to Hawaii, we had spent a lot of time for shopping such as buying swimming suit, summer clothes, and underwater camera... When we arrived Honolulu international Airport , Hawaiians who worked for the hotel company were waiting for us to welcome by saying a word" Aloha" ( It means I love you"). Then, they gave each person a hug and flower clay. After that, they took them back to the Hotel to take a rest after five hours of flying. On the first day at Hawaii, we work up very early, took a shower, dressed up clothes and had a breakfast at the hotel. After breakfast, we visited around the city of Honolulu by free shuttle. On the second day, we spent the whole day in swimming at the Waikiki beach. We took many pictures while we were swimming, jumping and playing into the water with a splash. we walked and lay down on the white sand beach under the sun shine.It made me feel better after hard working days. Finally, we had an excited and happy time in this summer; we hope that we will visit Hawaii on next summer.
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Subject: Getting Driving licence
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people who need driving licence in California have done a little things. I was one of them. I did some things to get my driving licence. First, I took appointement for writting teast, then I found a book to study, but I didn't study good because when I took my first writting teast, I faild; however, in the same day, I took the teast again; still, I faild. In california, there is three chances to take writting teast, so I had to take my third chance to pass the teast. After I had studied hard, I took the teast again, then I passed. This was the first step to reach driving a car. The sconde thing I did learning how drive a car. This was the easier one than the writting teast; however, I found a person who teach driving. She was a nice person from Vitnam. After I had learnt, I took the driving teast, I passed on the first day . Finally, I got my driving licence from santa clara, CA in 1998.In conclusion, to get a driving licence in California looks very hard; on the other hand, if you take time and study it is easy.
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Subject: My trip in Yosemite National Park
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Last Saturday my family went to the Yosemite National Park. After four hours driving, we arrived at the park entrance. When we were going to buy the ticket, the park's staff told us that day was the National Public Lands Day, so the entrance fee was waived, we were lucky. We drove to the park information center where has the bus which could take us to visit Yosemite Valley. We visited Nature Center at Happy Isles and Lower Yosemite fall. Unfortunately, the fall was dry; accordingly, we only could see the huge stone with the black water mark standing there. On the second day, we drove to the Glacier Point to see Half Dome. When we stood on the top of the mountain, we were not being in mood for enjoying the beautiful view because we felt extreme cold. The temperature was only 38 degree; however, we only wore the jacket. A few minuets later, it began to snow. When I saw the innumerable tiny snowflakes floating down, I felt excited because I hadn't seen snow since I came to the U.S. I like this nature park but I have much regret about this trip, so we are planning to go there again next spring.
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Subject: My escape trip from Vietnam
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I left Vietnam on October 20th, 1982 in a small fishing boat. When I rode to the fishing village, which is 40 miles way from Saigon city, in the afternoon, I was instructed to stay and sleep in a boat for that night. At 3.00 am in the morning I was awakened and transferred to another boat. By that time, I realized, the boat that we would use to depart, was too small to fit for 64 of us. The boat was about 10 feet wide and 25 feet long. However, I didn't have another option since my mother already paid the organizers ahead of time. If I had not gone, she would have lost the money. Being frightened, I stepped on the boat, and was quietly sitting in the bunker with other children. We were told to keep shut, no matter what would happen later. My boat started to leave the fishing village and sailed along the Saigon River to the VungTau open sea. When we arrived to the ocean I could see some sunlight coming through cracks in to our bunker. It was around 6.00 am in that morning, and it was also the most critical and most dangerous period of the trip since the sea patrolling police could see us clearly.
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Subject: My Honeymoon - Ilknur
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I have been married for over seven years. When I met my husband, I was going to university. After I had finished the school, we had married and we wanted to go for our honeymoon. My husband and I had researched together in the Internet before we went to honeymoon, and we decided to go to Antalya in Mediterranean coast. This place was natural and beautiful city in Turkey. Everyday I went to the beach, but my husband stayed in the hotel. That time my husband enjoyed reading. He did not want to sit under the sun for long time; however he preferred swimming after sun set. We agreed to visit historical places nearby the city, and we took a lot of pictures of the places we went to. After we had returned to the hotel, we prepared for dinner. There were a few restaurants in that place. During our honeymoon, we tried almost every one of these restaurants whose food was delicious. After we finished our dinner, we walked on the beach. While we were walking on the beach, we were talking each other. Before we returned home, we had gone for shopping and bought some gifts for our family and friends. We had lot of fun on our honeymoon and we felt happy because we knew each other more than before.
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Subject: HOW I GOT MY DRIVER'S LICENSE
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I remember back the time I first got my driver's license in USA. Everyday, I had to take a bus to go to school. Moreover, whenever I wanted to go outside, I had to wait for someone in my family who was available to drive me out. After living in the United States for a couple months, I realized that a person has no car as well as a bird has no wings. Because of many uncomfortable things, I decided to get a driver's license. Everyday early in the morning, I learned from my teacher whom I hired from Vietnamese's newspaper. I had to fight with my nervous and unsafely feeling whenever I put my foot on the pedal. However, I gradually got back my confident and felt exciting to take a ride. After one month of studying, I passed the driver's examination with high score, had a driver's license, and had been enjoying of my driving until now.
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Subject: Paragraph: Vacation
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My family and couple of our friends went on an unforgettable vacation to the Lake Tahoe last winter. We rented three- story house in Tahoe City, and we were very satisfied with our accommodation. Before we found this house, we had done some Internet research about vacation-renting on Lake Tahoe. Because we have young children, we would make two groups; one group was skiing, while the other group was sledding with children. We were skiing on Alpine Meadows ski resort, but we also visited Squaw Valley where 1960 Olympic Winter Games were held. One evening male members of our group made special Thanksgiving dinner, and everyone enjoyed food, music and the sound of the wood burning in the fireplace. However, the happiest members of our group were children, who made snowman and castles out of snow outside, and played hide-and-seek in the house. Every one of us has beautiful memory on this vacation and we look forward to repeat this experience.
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Subject: Tahoe Trip
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Recently, my friends and I went to Tahoe for the weekend. Unlike the many trips that I have taken to Tahoe, this one was different and quite memorable. The ten of us got a cabin with a hot tub. We cooked, talked and enjoyed each other company. We went hiking at Heavenly Mountain. As we were taking the gondola up the Heavenly Mountain, we were astonished by the scenery below us and as we were higher up we were mesmerized by it. The captivating picture of the bright and shinny sky of the late morning hang over the deep clear blue water before us to our surprise was nothing glamourous, yet it brought out the best of our mother nature and tranquility its viewers.
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Subject: My trip to Europe
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I traveled to Europe in August 1999 with three of my best friends. We decided to travel on our first vacations after we had worked in the same office for a year. Choosing the countries for our tour was hard because we wanted to know them all, but finally we decided to visit Spain, France, Italy, and Sweden. Getting the stuff ready for our trip took us a lot of time. We began to prepare the documents we needed for the trip, such as airplane and train tickets, hotel reservations, passport renewal, visas, and traveler insurance, a month earlier. While we were preparing this documentation, we were thinking about all the things that we were going to experience. When we arrived to Madrid, our first stop, we were so excited and tired after flying 10 hours in the plane. We met lot of people, and learned a lot about European culture and history. We were fascinated with all the historic places, art museums and the food. We spent the best time we have had in our whole life, and I think that better than our photos, are the memories in our minds.
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Subject: Mission college Services
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Mission College provides students many different services, such as library, tutoring, parking and instructors. First of all, its library has lot of different materials, such as books, CDs, and types, which make it easy for them to study, and it also provides special private study rooms for the students. It has the best system of tutoring compared to other schools. Students can find a tutor in any subject they want. They even can make an appointment so that the tutor can work only with them. It has also plenty parking spaces on the ground floor, so they don't have to worry about parking on streets or far places. For example, one of my co-workers who attends at San Jose City College complains a bout the parking spaces on campus. He told me that he got a parking violation ticket after he parked on the street because he couldn't find a space. Finally, There are very talented and helpful instructors in Mission College. They are always available to help students. They know how to teach and treat them with respect.
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