Write an essay about an unexpected gift (400-500 words)

Marisol walked into the large highschool building. There were people socializing in little groups all the way down the long main hall. She glanced at her schedule and headed tward her first class. On her way she passed people she would have waved to in middle school, people that would"ve smiled were they not so obsorbed in themselves now, they didn"t notice her. In her first class of the day, which was English, she sat in the corner behind a group of cackling girls. The girls passed notes to her, but only for her to pass on. As her eyes passed over each word she felt lighter and happier than she had all week. She could"nt help but smile.

Marisol"s first day of highschool started out so poorly earlier, she"d thought she"d go home and cry. After reading the words of someone, some amazing person with an angel"s mind who obviously loved her very much, Marisol no longer felt invisable. In fact she knew she wasn"t invisable and couldn"t be if there was someone out there that she inspired to write those beautiful special words that were written only for her.

Explanation:

I was in my room playing video games when suddenly my mom announced that Christmas was arriving soon and that we all had to buy presents for the family. I knew what it meant. It meant that we had to go shopping. Each year if my mom wanted something, I had to get it for her. My presents never went over $40, while my mom’s went close to $100. This year, though, something unusual happened like an elephant eating a crocodile. My mom actually told me how much she wanted me to spend on her gift!

“$50 this year,” she shouted from the kitchen.

“$50 should be OK,” I sighed reluctantly, “including tax.”

“K,” she replied with a smile.

We went to Markville Mall. At Walmart, I bought some books and a pair of headphones. I was thinking of saving money for an iPhone, but my mom literally wasted my $50 on a pair of earrings. They were pretty, but I thought she should have used my money on something worthy. The reason I say it is that she has a lot of earrings at home, and she never wears them. She just buys them and wears them for a week and never wears them ever again.

The next day I went to my grandparents’ house, and they said that they were taking me to Markville Mall. I wondered why we were going there again. I had just been there the day before, and now I was going there again! We got into the car and drove straight onto the highway. In a matter of minutes, we arrived. I ran as fast as the flash to the Apple Store and looked at the iPhones, and my grandparents followed. I didn’t know what my grandparents were up to since I had started playing a few addictive games on the iPads.

Suddenly, I remembered a few nights before I had heard my mom talking to my grandma about my grades on the report card. She said that I had done really well, in fact way over her expectations. My grandma was very happy and told my mom that she was getting me something as a gift, which I didn’t take seriously at the time.

At home, I decided to take a shower. As I was walking into the bathroom, I heard my grandma calling my mom and saying something about a cell phone. I cut my shower short as I was curious to know what was going on. After my shower, I immediately went to my bedroom. There was a wrapped box lying on my laptop. It was shiny and had many different colours on it, red, orange, yellow, blue, and green. It had snowman pictures on the back and read “Congratulations.” “What would it be?” I thought. Then I thought to myself, instead of wasting all this money on little gifts, if everyone had given the money to me, I would have been able to buy myself an iPhone. So very reluctantly, I decided to rip it open. But much to my surprise, I found an iPhone 5s in the box. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I almost cried and set it up immediately. I had a hard time focusing on what I was doing, and my tears dropped all over the phone.

On that day, I found out that if I worked hard and did something well, my achievement would be noticed, and I would be rewarded by my parents and grandparents. I also learned I should not make rash judgments about people.

1. read the following excerpt from franklin d. roosevelt's "fireside chat 19":

on the other side of the picture, we must learn also to know that guerilla warfare against the germans in, let us say serbia or norway, us; that a successful russian offensive against the germans us; and that british successes on land or sea in any part of the world strengthen our hands.

remember always that germany and italy, regardless of any formal declaration of war, consider themselves at war with the united states at this moment just as much as they consider themselves at war with britain or russia. and germany puts all the other republics of the americas into the same category of enemies. the people of our sister republics of this hemisphere can be honored by that fact.  

the true goal we seek is far above and beyond the ugly field of battle. when we resort to force, as now we must, we are determined that this force shall be directed toward ultimate good as well as against immediate evil. we americans are not destroyers — we are builders.

analyze the effectiveness of this excerpt. how does it function within the speech as a whole? how does the structure of the excerpt to convey the speech's purpose and key points? support your argument with evidence from the speech. (10 points)

dr. kings dream speech

explanation:

it was late in the day and hot, and after a long march and an afternoon of speeches about federal legislation, unemployment and racial and social justice, the rev. dr. martin luther king jr. finally stepped to the lectern, in front of the lincoln memorial, to address the crowd of 250,000 gathered on the national mall.