1.

Constitutional Issues Presentation: If a patient is going to die no matter what, but there
is an operation to stop some pain, should the family be able to make the decision
regarding whether the surgery is done, or should it solely be up to the doctors?
- I think the decision should be made by the doctors. In the conference where issues
like this were discussed, many of the lawyers and judges agreed that the doctors
should perform whatever will be best for the patient, regardless of its morality.
My neighbor is a nurse, and she said that while getting her degree, she had to go
to hospitals and do rounds to observe. She told us that there was one man who had
been in a terrible car accident and his leg had mostly been severed at the knee. It
was barely attached, but he was now suffering from gangrene and was in
excruciating pain, so much so that he refused to eat or move because of the pain.
He had suffered extensive external and internal injuries, so many that he was
going to die no matter what, but they had an option. The doctors could perform a
surgery to remove his leg which would at least relieve the pain. However, his
family refused to consent to the surgery because they “wanted him to be buried
with his leg attached.” Is it fair that the family was allowed to make this decision
that left the patient in a worse state, or should the doctors have been allowed to
perform the surgery, regardless of what the family wanted?

2. Poem Analysis: Why does the author spend so much time describing and reminiscing
about the “twilight blue Chevrolet?”
- I think that the author spends a long time describing this car because it’s what he
grew up with, and it’s what was important to him. It’s something that he and his
father had in common, and it was something that helped them create meaningful
memories. It could also be representative of something in their life that was
similar. Something that “drove” them to do what they wanted and “drove” them to
have a better relationship. With the details he uses to describe the car, such as
having no engine or no padding, I think you can also see how it’s aged, just like
the father and son. The author describes having used the car as a youth to go on
dates, drive to the park, etc. Once upon a time, this car functioned well and had
been used to create memories, but now it is older and doesn’t work as well.

3. Orwell Essay: Why have we as speakers become so lazy regarding our language?
- I believe one of the reasons our language has changed so drastically is, in part,
due to the use of social media. Social media has created all of the slang terms and
abbreviations that have integrated themselves into our language, which most often
create a more lazy, unrefined word or term. Nowadays, when we hear someone
speak more proper or refined, we think they sound weird and too professional. A
student I teach has a very refined language, and just the other day, he was playing
a song and turned to me and said, “That piece is quite creative.” While this isn’t
too refined, when it’s coming from a 7 year old, it sounded weird to me, mostly
 because I think I’ve become so used to hearing a more lazy form of English. In
the Orwell Essay, he states: “...the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for
us to have foolish thoughts.” We can see this because when we don’t have the
correct words to form coherent thoughts and ideas, they can come across as lazy
and foolish.

4. Danger of a Single Story: How can single stories be dangerous and hurt us and those
around us?
- When we have a single story, it is dangerous because we grow up knowing and
teaching others this idea. We don’t have the full story and full knowledge of
everything that has to do with the story. If we are taught and believe a single
story, then we are becoming ignorant and not learning the full and complete truth.
Single stories can be dangerous to us because they make us believe something
that isn’t completely true, and they can oftentimes be harmful or damaging. For
example, many people around the world think that everyone from the Middle East
is a bad person or a terrorist, just because there have been terrorist attacks in and
from the Middle East. The people who commit these crimes represent a tiny
percentage of everyone in the country, but many people don’t read about the
subject and only hear about these incidents, which leads them to believe these
false stories that aren’t reliable or even true.

5. A Doll’s House: Why does the author choose to write Nora in a seemingly unlikeable
way?
- Pretty much everyone in my class didn’t really like Nora because she seemed
selfish, kind of dumb, and just overall annoying. I think that Nora was written in
this way, because even though we may not see it, many of us may have some of
the similar qualities that Nora possesses.I think she was also written this way
because even if we don’t possess these qualities, I think everyone knows someone
who may have at least one or a few of them. I think this was done to make the
character more relatable, which can help the reader better understand the
decisions she made and why she acted the way she did. If NOra had been written
as some character that no one could relate to, I don’t think readers would feel any
connection to her, or even really be able to visualize and try to understand what
she was growing through in her marriage and relationship with Torvald.