Thứ Tư, 20 tháng 4, 2011

PROCESS ESSAY: VILLAGE FESTIVAL IN MY HOMETOWN

             I was born in Ha Nam , a province in the North of Vietnam . I am always proud of my hometown with hard-working and kind farmers and especially I feel very proud of my village with a lot of traditional festivals taken place during a year . One of the most important festivals in my village is " Village Festival " . " Village Festival" is taken place every 2 years  to remind people in the village of the god of the village who built the village . People often call the god of the village as " Thanh Hoang Lang" . This festival is taken place on full-moon day of February . There are three parts in the" Village Festival".
            The first part of the festival that children are the most eager is lifting the palaqueen and lion dances . On the day of Village Festival , children often  get up early , wearing beautiful clothes . Then they go to the communal house of the village to wait for the palaqueen . About 7 o'clock  , all of people in the village gather in two sides of the road to see the palaqueen pass . It is believed that children who go under the palaqueen on this day will have good health and will study very well. At 8 o'clock in the morning the palaqueen starts being raised from the village to  the village . The palaqueen is raised by 8 people . Always the old people in the traditional  costume go in front of the palaqueen and they both go and spread things like coins, pink candles.. My grandma told me that people who pick the pink candles are very lucky . They often put the candles in front of their children 's bed . It is thought that the light of the pink candle will make their children more intelligent and healthier. Therefore they try to get the pink candles. Lion dances are also followed by the palaqueen. The procession lasts for more than an hour.
            After the procession , people in the village : the old, the young and children move to the river in the village quickly to see the next part of the Village Festival called " traditional games". Traditional games is the most interesting part in the Village Festival so  villagers always wait for this activity . There are a lot of traditional games taken place in this part such as boat race , tug of war and wrestling... One of the most interesting games in Village Festival is the racing boat . There are 5 teams which presentate for 5 villages to take part in this game. It is very proud of the village to win the competition . Therefore , every village chooses the strongest man to join the boat race competition.In this game , competitors sit on an imperial boat , a boat has the form of a dragon decorated with the different colours . The captains who stand at the head of the boat order their team to sail the boat quickly . As soon as the sound of the drum starts , all team begin sailing as fast as they can. Along two sides of the river viewers are shouting for encouragement for their home team .The louder the sound of yelling and shouting of fans is , the more quickly the competitors sail .People who watch at two sides of the river run after the boat to encourage for their team . The team which sails to the finish the most quickly will be the winner of the game . It is a big pride of the village for the team who gets the first prize . Besides the boat race , the traditional games like tug of war , rice- cooking and wrestling are also seen by most peole in the village. The activities of the traditional games finish at about 1p.m in the afternoon .
            The last part of Village Festival is celebrated in the communal house yard .after the traditional games.
When the traditional games finish , villagers gather in front of the communal house yard to eat a traditional meal and to see which teams get prizes in traditional games. From early in the morning, woman in the village prepare necessary materials to cook the meal. Often women in the village who are good at cooking will be chosen to cook for Village festival . About 12 p.m all the food is shown carefully and spectacularly on the tables in the communal house yard . On Village festival day  the communal house becomes more crowded.This is a special occasion for  people in the village to meet and talk together about their work as well as the harvest . Firstly, the results of the traditional games in the morning are announced by the leader of the village . Most people are awaiting to hear which teams win the first prize . It is the pride for the village that wins the first prize . The winners in the traditional games last year will award the prize for the winners this year.Then people sit on their seats eating the meal. They both eat and talk happily. After the meal ,people gather to hear the women in the village sing folk songs  The Village festival lasts untill early in the evening .
            Despite the impact of the industrialization , the Village festival is still celebrated as the cultural and traditional beauty of my village . It reminds the young generation of the tradition and originality .

Thứ Tư, 13 tháng 4, 2011

Classification Essay

My topic :Categorize food according to its nutritional benefits.

        There are a lot of factors that affect to our heath such as the environment around us , our daily eating habits ...However, the most important factor that affects directly to our heath is the food we eat everyday . Food provides us with the necessary nutrients to grow our body and to keep us heathy . Besides , every kind of food contains  specific nutrients . Base on nutritional benefits of food, people divide them into three main groups . They are the starchy food ,food providing a lot of vitamins and mineral and the food that contains protein and fats.
       The first group is starchy food . Do you know what is starchy food? Starchy food is the food containing a lot of starch such as cereals , rice, corn, potatoes, bread... It is the most important group of food to our heath because starchy food is a good source of energy for our body . The starch in rice , maize and cereals provides a great source of energy for us to work and study all day.Moreover, they are the main source of a range of nutrients in our diets. Starchy food gives us many important nutrients, including fiber, several vitamin B and minerals like iron, magnesium and selenium. The fiber in brown bread , cereals and corn is really useful for the digesty system. It reduces constipation. Because starchy food has much vitamin B , it helps the body release energy and plays a vital role in the function of the nervous system. Vitamin B also aids in the formation of red blood cells and builds tissues.Starchy food is very important to us because of its nutrients and energy it provides us.
       Fruit and vegetable is one of the most important groups of food to our health .It consists of all kinds of fresh fruit and green vegetables such as cabbage , carrot, pea, apple, banana...We can not have a good health without eating fruit and vegetables . Fresh fruit and green vegetable are a vital source of vitamins and necessary minerals for our body. For example , vitamin C in a lot of fruit like orange , lemon...is really impotant for our health. It helps us to heal cuts and wounds and especially , it keeps teeth and gum healthy . Not only vitamin C , it also provides us many minerals that are good for us . We should eat more green dark vegetable such as carrots , amaranth... because it contains iron which is good for the blood . Besides fruit and vegetables provides us a great amount of water and fiber .To have a healthy immune system we should eat more fruit and vegetable .Nowadays, obesity is the most popular disease so eating a lot of fruit and vegetable is the best way to reduce your blood cholesterol level and prevent the obesity . Furthermore, the more fruit and vegetable we eat everyday , the less risk of heart diseases we can get . Generally , fruit and vegetable are the natural drug for our body and reduce the risk of heart disease .
         The third group of food that is really important to our body is the food that contains protein and fats. The common foods in this group are meat , poultry, fish , dairy food and eggs .The amount of protein and fat in this group of food is very high . Meat is a good source of protein , vitamins and some minerals. Fish is another important  source of protein , especially oily fish is particularly rich in omega- 3 fatty acids so the fat in fish is really good for our health. Protein is really nesessary because it help our body to grow and repair itself. Besides we need this group of food as they function as building blocks for bones, muscles, cartilage , skin and blood . Protein and fat are one of three nutrients that provide calories and energy for us to work effectively. In despite  of the important nutrients contained in this group, we should not eat too much because they do still contain high levels of fat. Therefore, it is good for our health to eat them in moderation.
         In short  , Starchy food , fruit and vegetable and the food with protein and fat are the most important groups of food with the differences in nutrients . To have a good health , we should eat a balanced diet of three main groups of food.