DUE: Thursday by 8:30 a.m.
Download and read the story by clicking the link below:
Please post your response to the following questions in the comments section below. You should aim for 400 words.
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What are the main ideas of this story? What is the author’s message? (Support your claim with evidence from the story)
a) topic sentence (main message/ lesson). The main message of the story is that we should/ shouldn’t …
b) Elaboration: In life, …
c) Examples: In the story, ….
d) tell me how it connects to your message: Therefore, …. e) personal connection based on the lesson: I think that the story…. In my experience….
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Do you feel sorry for Jerry? Why? or Why not?
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If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would you ask?
You will be marked on the quality of your response and your response to others’ comments:
9-10: Excellent and insightful; response shows superb understanding and critical analysis; contains great details and responds to complex ideas
7-8: Good; response shows thoughtful understanding; contains good details and responds to ideas
5-6: Satisfactory; response shows a basic understanding; contains basic details and responds only to major ideas
3-4: Unsatisfactory; response shows some misunderstanding; contains insufficient details and does not fully respond to the main ideas
1-2: Poor; response shows poor understanding; contains no details and does not respond to the task
EAP 300 
1. The main idea is that the government found a way to reduce overpopulation regardless of people’s lives. The main message of the story is that we should be more informed about government actions. In life, people just follow the government instructions and laws however in most cases people do not reflect either analyzed the information provided by the government. In the story, Jerry felt fortunate because he won the drawing at school which allowed him to attend the carnival free, he trusts in the government and in his mother. As he trusted thinking that being a winner was the best opportunity, he never asked or researched information about the carnival. He felt exhausted because it was a carnival to have fun and acquire new experiences. The author’s message is that the government does not always make the best decision, people cannot trust in all their actions because they take advantage of different situations by deceiving people. As the story mentioned “Carnivals used to be popular with kids but were not nearly as exciting as those of today”. Therefore, people should be more informed about government decisions because they deceive people, making us believe that they make the best decisions. In my opinion, if we compare this story with the real-life, we are living a similar situation most of the governments deceive populations into believing that they make the best decisions for us, and the worse part of this is that people believe it because we live in a society where people do not like to be informed do analysis for the world situation.
2. I feel sorry for Jerry because he did not know the main reason to go to the Carnival. He was deceived by his mother, the government, and the school because they sponsor the drawing competition. Especially I think that her mother had the obligation to advise him about the danger or probably she could have stopped him. She as her mother would not have let him go. He trusted in all of them, and he never researched or asked about more information related to the carnival, he only tough that Carnival is to have fun. This means that we cannot trust anyone because even his family that was the closer one deceived him.
3. If I could ask the author one question about his story is Why did you choose a carnival to end people’s lives?
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1) What are the main ideas of this story? What is the author’s message?
I think the main idea of the story is overpopulation, since some sentences are used to indicate about adjusting overpopulation, such as “the government agency-Populace Control”, ”some of you may not be making the return trip on this bus ”, “The odds are one in eight you’ll make it kid.” and so on. Also, in this story, the author didn’t use the word “death” but, some scenes which probably indicate “death” are described carefully, such as “burly men, struggling with something in a large plastic bag, passed him.”, “He was in the air, hurtling headlong downward”, “But Jerry did not see them; nor was he conscious when he ceased to be” and so on. Considering these sentences, “Carnival” in the story doesn’t exist to entertain people, but to kill people. By showing this situation, I think the author tells us that we have to aware and face to the problem of overpopulation. In our real lives, the number of populations has increased to 7 billion, and now the governments in some countries announce to have small families to reduce population. In addition, referring this story to our real lives, “carnival” could be the government, “Jerry” could be citizen. Therefore, I think the author also tells us that if we didn’t aware of overpopulation and think about it, the government would control you. After I finished reading this story, I know this would not happen in real life ethically, but I got scared, because if we didn’t pay attention to things which happen in the world, we might be guided by the government. In our lives, holocaust could be one example. In that time, people were brainwashed by the government, and many people were killed. I imagine that people were brainwashed because they didn’t know what is happening in the world, and what is really true, since there was no internet or social medias. However, people in present day are different. We can access to a lot of information, and there are a lot of opportunities to think about many problems in the world. Therefore, to avoid terrible incident such as holocaust, I think it is very important to pay attention to news and have our opinions, and if the governments go wrong way, we have to stop them.
2)Do you feel sorry for Jerry? Why? or Why not?
I definitely sorry for Jerry in terms of being sacrificed by the government. However, the rate of feeling sorry for him is different depends on the part. At the beginning of the story, I think he didn’t know about this place, so I feel very sorry for Jerry. However, after he spent some time in the Carnival, he must have noticed about the system, since he watched 2 men carrying huge black plastic bag and threw to the pit, and heard “today’s odds”. He could stop riding any attractions, but he didn’t stop. He wanted to boast to his friends. I know he was young, but there was only him who could make decision. He should have decided not to decide not to ride anything. Therefore, I feel little sorry for Jerry it the last part.
3) If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would you ask?
If I could ask the author one question, I would ask what do you think is the best way to solve overpopulation
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a) In my guess, the main idea of this story is ”Do not judge a book by its cover” and “ do not think about things easily” There are two reasons Why I chose these two sentences. First, in this story, the main character called Jerry never afraid of trying new things even though the carnival is killing people to control the population. At the first glance, this thinking of way has positive effects on our situations. However, since it is just a curiosity and it can be said only when we are childhood, it means that is not true and has negative effects. Second, the government may kill people who have excellent skills unconsciously because of their law or obligation. This means the government did not think that Jerry might useful person in the future in spite of the fact that he won the painting competition. In addition, I think these two messages, which I mentioned at the first sentence, is especially talking to young people and adult such as teenager, employee, and CEO. In my experience, when I was a high school student, I had made mistakes similar to Jerry’s. However, if I were able to back at that time, I would not make a mistake again. The reason is that now my thinking way is more logical and I can find a risk or mistakes when I do something. For these reasons and my experience, I think the main idea of this story is “Do not judge a book by its cover” and “Do not think about easily”
b) I do feel sorry for Jerry because he did not know that the carnival was trying to kill the people to control the population due to his age. In addition, it is not his fault, because he was too young to think about the meaning of carnival. In the future, he may do a good performance in the area of painting, but he was dead. In the story, He just wanted to enjoy the carnival because this time was his first time. For this reason, I really want to say “sorry Jerry”
c) If I could ask the author one question, I would like to ask why you chose Jerry as 16 years old. Actually, when I read this story, I could not understand what were you saying. If I were going to write this story I would choose an elderly person for the main and sub-character because this carnival held to reducing population. when I tried to make a summary, I just read your mind from the overall meaning and guessed. In addition, then I thought this number which means 16 years old is one key-point in this story. That’s why I want to make sure why you chose 16 years old.
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1) What are the main ideas of this story? What is the author’s message?
The main idea of the text is that we should control the birth rate and showing us about what the governments can do to control the overpopulation. The main message of this story is never gamble your life because the odds are never in your favor. In the story, Jerry won a special ticket from the government to go to Carnival. He was very excited, while other people in the bus was very sad to go there. For example, in paragraphs 5 and 6 the author said “from the way the man and the woman spoke, Jerry guessed they had attended many carnivals… How much more interesting than his parents they were, Jerry thought.” The stakes at the carnival are life or death. There is a chance to survive, but it is minimum. It is a terrible way to control the overpopulation by government, but they were very intelligent because many people like the challenge, especially youngers. Therefore, the government take advantage of the courage of these people to make a kind of “Russian roulette” disguised as a way to control the overpopulation for their benefit. I think that story is a way to tell us that we must face and settle the overpopulation problem quickly, or the government would do horrible things in the future.
2) Do you feel sorry for Jerry? Why? or Why not?
I do not feel sorry for him. Actually, at first I felt sorry because he was a poor young boy. However, when I read for the second time, I realize that when Jerry discover that he will probably die, he continue thinking that taking risks is fine. For example, in the story a man said to Jerry “The odds are one in eight you’ll make it kid,” and he ”shuddered briefly, then turned away.” Although the things that happen in the park were fun, the people had a huge risk to be killed. This did not seem to bother Jerry. Jerry expected his friends to look to him and think he was cool if he survive in the . Therefore, the responsibility of his death was his own and, of course, the government, that chose a terrible way to solve the overpopulation.
3) If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would you ask?
I would like to ask two questions to the author: If I get the ticket, could I ignore it? Because if it were a ticket and I would knew what happens to me in that place, maybe I could ignore this and I would decide to stay home. The second question is: why only Jerry did not know what happen there? It is very strange that many people in the bus knew and he didn’t.
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1)
The author, Michael Fedo’s main message of this story is that we should not believe too much even if it is the government or school. The boy who is 16 years old is named Jerry. He was really looking forward to go to the carnival for the first time. However, he didn’t see an important thing, due to the fact that he tingled with excitement. Mainly, there are two point of view. First of all, he had won the drawing the free pass of carnival at school from supporting the government. He looked glad at that time, but he should have thought about why this pass is free, what it is a purpose of free. Secondly, the day of the carnival, his mother was weeping a few feet away the bus. Despite the fact that, he was glad from he got a free pass, why his mother had wept as she watched him get on the bus. He should have thought about that the reason why his mother had wept. At the charted bus, at the grey neighborhoods, into the carnival, there were a lot of the strange situation, nevertheless he could not notice at all. Perhaps, he completely believed anything, and he did not watch anything because of the fact that he had so much fun. I think the author wanted to claim us that do not believe too much. The government sometimes states us only a good point or an attractive aspect. However, we have to consider if the government state is benefit for us before the something is enforcement.
2)
I feel sorry for him, because he did not know that what the carnival is to do there. If he knew that the carnival purpose is populace control, he would not go to the carnival. He was still 16 year-old boy, he did not have to die. Perhaps, his mother was already known that a purpose of the carnival. He was killed by the government and the surrounding society.
3)
If I could ask the author one question about this story, I would like to ask why did you come up with this story? I want to ask this question, because this story’s how to kill is extremely cruelty. Weather there are countries or area in the face of a similarly situation, or it is only your idea, in addition, any other ways were nothing to solve this problem. I really curious about it.
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(1)
This story implies the serious overpopulation and people’s over-doing behaviour to solve the problem as the main ideas of this story.
From the word of “the government agency-Populace Control”, you can imagine that the government try to reduce the population, and also the author implies people are going to die in the Carnival, because he uses the phrases such as “He was in the air, hurtling headlong downward”,“ burly men, struggling with something in a large plastic bag, passed him.” In this story.
This story is a little bit cruel, but the government has possible to be cruel one in our real life, and also they might brainwash the people by using news, radio, or some information tools.
In my experience, when I live in Japan, overpopulation is not serious, because of Japan has less birth rate, but If I read news or research about Global warming, resources problem, the overpopulation is so serious. Now I can understand why the auther write this story because people might not notice a serious problem, like these characters in this story. There is a possibility that government might do anything to solve the problem while people might not notice that. Ignorance is dangerous.
(2)
I feel sorry for Jerry, but actually he was happy in this Carnival. His curiosity was real and he was just exploring. The result was terrible, but he might have been happy. I feel sad because of his innocent. Nobody couldn’t help him even his mother, so he should gain a knowledge by himself.
(3)
If I could ask the author one question, I’d like to ask him that “Which do you think is cruel, the government that forces people or the innocent people?”. I’m curious his answer because I feel it’s difficult to choose that’s why this story is thoughtful.
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1)What are the main ideas of this story? What is the author’s message?
In my opinion, this story points to two points. First of all, indirectly about population control, we have to take overpopulation seriously because in this story it shows us that the government chooses the simplest way to control the population, which is to kill people. There are four stories that when Jerry wins a painting competition at school, he gets a free ticket to the carnival, which is a deadly amusement park built to solve the problems of the population, out of eight people. One person dies. Why should the school give the same ticket to the students? The reality is not always as it seems. The government has built the park to control the population and distributes tickets to the people through various channels. The second point of this story is that, since Jerry is only sixteen years old and in puberty, he is very excited and likes to go to this deadly park, it shows that those who are in puberty can not make a wise decision and under They are impressed and very excited. Even if they realize the excitement at the cost of losing their lives, they want to experience it. I think this story wants to tell us how easily the government can reduce the population. In my personal experience, on these Days, all countries are affected by Covid-19 disease and many die from it, some countries do not take basic and serious measures to prevent this disease because they want to reduce the country’s population.
2)Do you feel sorry for Jerry? Why? or Why not?
I’m really sorry for Jerry because he was only 16 years old and very young. He just wanted to have fun, and he was very excited and surprised, and he chose to go to that deadly park. He was too brave and too confident to challenge himself, but the reason for his death was himself, although the government played a key role in his death.
3)If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would you ask?
I would like to ask the author what is the best way to reduce the population if countries are facing the problem of population growth? He wrote this story to make people understand that governments are killing people in such a cruel way to solve the population decline ??? What should people do in such a situation? Did he have another message in this story?
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What are the main ideas of this story? What is the author’s message?
The main idea of this story is that people should not judge just the surface of the name. As this story mentioned, Jerry didn’t know that he will die at the carnival because he won the drawing at school and was invited as a special guest of the government. Therefore, he was looking forward to going to the carnival. For these reasons, it is dangerous for us to believe anything just on the surface. For example, before coming to Canada, in my image, almost people are native Canadian in Vancouver, however, in reality, there are a lot of immigration. I had a stereotype that foreign country consists of each country’s native, because in Japan, almost of people who live in Japan is Japanese native. Therefore, I didn’t know that Canada has so many immigrations. That’s one of the examples. Thus, he also should think more about it. Actually, there are a lot of keys to realize about it around him. For example, to be invited by free ticket, react of other people and so on. As a consequence of this, the author’s message is that people should throw the stereotype when they know some new things. In addition to this message, it is also important for us to live strong and keep the life because this story mention that it’s easy for human to die.
Do you feel sorry for Jerry? Why? or Why not?
I feel sorry for Jerry because he didn’t have reason to be killed by the government at that time. He was still too young to die. If the government have to kill someone, they should kill elderly people, because the boy was still young. It means that children or young people have a future and maybe children will solve the population problem in the future. Therefore, the government needs to save children or young people for their country’s future. Of course, it is also bad things to kill elderly people, but if they have to kill someone, they should decide people by thinking about the future. In addition to this, he was deceived by the government and die. He didn’t have knowledge about the government’s trick.
If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would you ask?
If I could ask the author one question about this story, I want to ask him “why did you choose the carnival to kill the people?”. In the normal, there is enjoyable wonderful things at a carnival. However, the carnival which is written on this book is not good place. There is a dangerous place for people who lives the world.
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Yuta
What What are the main ideas of this story? What is the author’s message?
The main message of the story is that we should solve the issue about over population. The story started one boy that is 16 years old was looking forward to going to the carnival. However, nobody knew himself happening awful situation in the future. The story warns a lot of tellable situation. In the fact, China have decided to one declaration that is one child policy to attempted to control population. However, it resulted in failure. In the story, the populace control officer also tries to control population, whereas the movement fail as well as one child policy of result. Especially, each life could not compare anything. Additionally, it has one more problem. The boy’s name who is Jerry is invited the carnival by the government agency. He didn’t know anything, and he rode on the bus to go to the carnival. Even if the government chose random people, they should say him. The author’s message is that if the problem of over population is not solved, the awful situation will be possible to happen in our future because people already control the number of dog and cat now. Unfortunately, some dogs and cats are put in sleep now. We already control animal’s life. Therefore, people should prepare surviving the situation for over population.
Do you feel sorry for Jerry? Why? or Why not?
Yes, I feel sorry for Jerry. The reason is that he could not understand what he happens himself due to 16 years old. It is too young to die in 16 years old. If I had lived in the story, I could suggest Hans Rosling of opinion. In the story, P.C. officer said, “the odds are one in eight”. The officer also thinks it as well. The government should solve other way of resolution. If the government find it, a lot of people could save our life.
If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would you ask?
If I could ask the author one question about this story, I would ask that if we will have the problem in the future, what is there some resolutions?
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1. What are the main ideas of this story? What is the author’s message?
The main message of the story is that we should more seriously consider the problem of overpopulation, and if we don’t do that, something bad will happen in the future. The words like “overpopulation” or “population growth” never appeared in this story, but the author said that the government agency – Populace Control—sponsored the drawings and contests (to decide who can attend the carnival) for students. In addition, there was a gloomy atmosphere even on the first page of this story by using negative expressions like “who (Jerry’s mother) stood weeping a few feet away”, “but the other passengers were strangely silent”, “Silent people on the streets, wearing distant, vacant faces, did not look up as the bus went by.” After I finished reading this first page, I guessed that the carnival was actually not an enjoyable one. After that, as I went on reading, I noticed that some words implied death, and the government killed people to reduce the population. In our daily lives, it is difficult to notice the problem of overpopulation. Probably some people think it is nothing to do with them. For example, in this story, Jerry could not find or pretended not to notice that he was in a death carnival although there were so many hints. Therefore, I think Jerry represented us, and this example showed that we are less concerned about the problem of overpopulation. To sum up, I think that this story tries to make us aware of overpopulation and tells us the risk of not noticing or ignoring it.
2. Do you feel sorry for Jerry? Why? or Why not?
I felt sorry for Jerry, because he was killed by the government even though he was only a child; nevertheless, at the same time, I also think that Jerry was a little foolish. There were so many chances that Jerry could sense something was wrong. For example, the words like “Some of you may not be making the return trip on this bus.”, “If you’re lucky, (you can ride this attraction later).”, “The odds are one in eight you’ll make it kid,” could have been the hints! Therefore, in my opinion, Jerry should have noticed that it was a death carnival, in other words, the place to kill people for population control.
3. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would you ask?
If I could ask the author one question about this story, I would like to say, “If you were invited to this carnival, would you attend it or run away from it?” I really want to know the answer for this question. If I were selected as a guest for this carnival and sensed the unusual atmosphere after I got on the bus, I would try to escape from the situation by any means.
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1) What were the main ideas presented in Rosling’s lecture? Do you agree with his conclusions, why or why not?
The main idea of Rosling’s lecture is fewer bath rate leads to longer lives. Also, he stated that developed country has fewer birth rate and long terms lives, while developing country has high birth rate and short terms lives. I agree with his conclusions, because having too many babies is difficult to take care of them and parents can’t treat them. Having a baby is good for our society; however, having baby too much causes some problems. As the man who have two children from Bangladesh, if people have more children, they can’t take care of them due to various reasons. The reason is that to raise a child is take a lot of cost for giving food, receiving education, getting medical treatment and so on. Therefore, we think about the relationship between birth rate and the length of life.
2) What sort of work does Taslima Khan do?
Taslima Khan works for the government family planning service. She try to help large family and small family. She give advice about moral society ; for example, how they treat their children. The most important things of her job is giving advice about contraceptive. In this video, Taslima give pills to the woman has two children and they don’t have enough money to take care of children. By doing so, the woman control the birth rate and they can take care of children. It is important to control of birth rate for taking care of children properly and to expand their lives.
2a) What are some difficulties she faces in her work? What is your suggestion for her in tackling these difficulties?
In this video, she faces difficulties to talk to people who didn’t receive enough education. In my opinion, it is difficult to get understand about how importance of controlling birth rate. Because of that some people don’t know having too many babies cause problems. I think it is problem and people thinks have to have baby with planning.
3) What is the current situation in your country in terms of population and what is the government doing to deal with it?
In Japan, population is getting older. It is serious problem in Japan. The reason is that population getting older results in causing some problems. For example, it causes higher costs for the government, a shortage of pension and social security type funds, a shortage of people to take care of for the elderly people and shortage of young workers. By dealing with these problems, government support child-rearing. For instance, government support work style of men and women such as correcting long working hours, promoting male employees to take childcare leave, employment of women support for career advancement. These government support is not very common now, but I hope the society of Japan have comprehensive support for child-rearing in the future.
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1. What are the main ideas of this story? What is the author’s message? (Support your claim with evidence from the story)
The main message of the story is that we should think about the value of our life. In this story, the main character is a young boy named Jerry. He is sixteen years old, and he went to the carnival. Although the purpose of the carnival is killing people, he didn’t now that and he was exciting to go to the carnival. The government invited people to the death carnival. It is like indiscriminate murder. When Jerry entered the carnival, a man who was police officer said, “there is plenty of time-plenty of opportunity for everyone.” It means that we feel a lot of time in our life; however, there is possibility of death for everyone. Therefore, I think that the story is about the importance of our life and we should not neglect the life of everything.
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2. Do you feel sorry for Jerry? Why? or Why not?
I feel sorry for Jerry, because due to the government, he was too young to die. He didn’t want to die, and he felt excited to tell the story about his experience of the carnival to his classmates. I don’t know why the government choose Jerry, but he hasn’t done anything bad. So, the government is murder. However, I think it was small his faults. I think he could be realized the suspect of the carnival, because there were some parts of strange sight. If he realized stringless of the carnival, he wouldn’t have died. In this story, he saw the strange sight which two men had huge black plastic bag and they throwed it in the hole. Although he felt weird about that sight, he ride roller coaster for feeling thrill and sense of accomplishment. Therefore, it was little his fault.
3. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would you ask?
If I could ask one question, I would ask what you think about is why the government build the carnival for killing people? I think killing people do not allow for whatever reason. This carnival is same as murder. Also, why choose Jenny to invite the carnival? Are there any the criteria of judgement to decide the value of life?
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