ITEM 1 – POEM
If you Think You Can, You Can!
You can be a total winner even if you’re a beginner,
If you think you can, you can,
If you think you can, you can,
You can wear the gold medallion,
You can ride your own black stallion,
If you think you can, you can,
If you think you can, you can,
It’s not your talent or the gift at birth,
It’s not your bank book that determines worth,
And it isn’t in the color of your skin,
It’s your attitude that lets you win,
You can upset Connors or Austin,
Or win the marathon at Boston,
If you think you can, you can,
If you think you can, you can,
You can profit through inflation,
You can redirect this nation,
If you think you can, you can,
If you think you can, you can,
It doesn’t matter if you’ve won before,
It makes no difference what’s the half time score,
It’s never over until the final gun,
So keep on trying and you’ll find you’ve won,
You grab your dream and then believe it,
Go out and work and you’ll achieve it,
If you think you can, you can,
If you think you can, you can!
~By Denis Waitley ~
Rhetorical:
- Repetition: If you think you can, you can
- Rhyme: medallion – stallion, birth – worth, skin – win – Austin, marathon – Boston, inflation – nation, before – score, gun – won, believe it – achieve it.
ITEM 2 – CARTOON
- Irony: That man is taught traffic rules after his accident.
- Overstatement: There are a lot of pictures of traffic rules on the ceiling of the patient room.
Moral lesson: Everyone have to learn traffic rules carefull to protect ourselves.
ITEM 3 – SHORT STORY
One at a time
A friend of ours was walking down a deserted Mexican beach at sunset. As he walked along, he began to see another man in the distance. As he grew nearer, he noticed that the local native kept leaning down, picking something up and throwing it out into the water. Time and again he kept hurling things out into the ocean.
As our friend approached even closer, he noticed that the man was picking up starfish that had been washed up on the beach and, one at time, he was throwing them back into the water.
Our friend was puzzled. He approached the man and said, “Good evening, friend. I was wondering what you are doing.”
“I’m throwing these starfish back into the ocean. You see, it’s low tide right now and all of these starfish have been washed up onto the shore. If I don’t throw them back into the sea, they’ll die up here from lack of oxygen.”
“I understand,” my friend replied, “but there must be thousands of starfish on this beach. You can’t possibly get to all of them. There are simply too many. And don’t you realize this is probably happening on hundreds of beaches all up and down this coast. Can’t you see that you can’t possibly make a difference?”
The local native smiled, bent down and picked up yet another starfish, and as he threw it back into the sea, he replied, “made a difference to that one!”
~By Jack Canfield and Mark V. Hansen~
Rhetorical:
- Symbol: the starfishs are symbol of the miserable.
Moral lesson: All you have to do is try your best, it does not matter if you cannot make everything change.
REFERENCES
1) http://www.cybernation.com/victory/youcandoit/youcan.php
2) http://www.thepeoplespaths.net/special/chickensoup.htm
3) http://hoasibiem.com/79/tranh-biem-hoa-du-thi-va-doat-giai-cup-rong-tre-2010.html
CT11E12 
your item 2 is very interesting but i would like to add something more about its message that is everyone has to learn and obey the traffic rules to protect himself.
– In your story, I can find another moral lesson, and I would like you to take it into consideration. ” You can bit by bit make your dreams happen, as long as you never give up.”
– I like your cartoon very much. It’s an emergency call that we must pay much attention to.
– In short, it’s worth reading your post ♥♥♥
thanks for your two comments, I’ll reconsider them!
Hi Phuong.
I really love your entry. I find interested in all 3 items.They exactly give me some experiences. However, you can add the message of item 1: to succeed in every work, you must believe in yourself and be confident. if you want to achieve something, you should do it immediately.
in item 3, i think it has more rhetorical devices than you gives.
– Rhetorical question: And don’t you realize this is probably happening on hundreds of beaches all up and down this coast. Can’t you see that you can’t possibly make a
difference?”
– Parallelism: The local native smiled, bent down and picked up yet another starfish, and as he threw it back into the sea, he replied, “made a difference to that one!
– Repetition: noticed that.