My Reading Journal 5

The Little Match Girl,which many people have heard of in our childhood.The author named Hans Christian Andersen,a great author of fairy tales and stories,was the son of a poor shoemaker and grew up in a small town.In his stories,characters are mostly poor.His stories were widely spread and were read by almost everyone,even kings and queens.Other famous stories include "The Emperor's New Cloths","The Ugly Duckling".

This story start with a terrible cold night.A girl,barehead and barefoot,was walking through the street.She carried several packages of matches,holding a box of them in her hand.No one had bought any from her all day long,and no one had given her a cent.
In all windows lights were shining,and there was a wonderful smell of roast goose,for it was New Year's Eve.It was getting colder and colder,but she did not dare to go home.For she had sold no matches,her father would surely beat her.Shivering with cold,she struck the matches and saw many wonderful illusions.Then,she saw her grandma,the only person who had loved her.Did not want her grandma vanish,so she struck the whole bundle of matches,and then,she was taken to a place where was neither cold,nor hunger,nor fear.With her grandma,and God.
But in corner,leaning against the wall,sat a little girl frozen to death on the last evening of the old year,holding the burned matches."She wanted to warm herself."There is no one imagined what beautiful things she had seen,and how happily she had gone.

The setting of this story is in a warm,fantastic night.In New Year's Eve,families gather and celebrate the bright New Year.On the contrary,the girl was poor,hungery,and cold.She lighted matches to warm herself,contenting herself with many illusions what she longed for for so long.I think that because of the background of the author,he can reflect the social reality through a short story artlessly.In the end of the story,little girl was dead.People feel sympathetic to this girl,without knowing what beautiful scenes she had seen.We see what we want see and we think how it should be.The author is not sad for the girl,I think.For her,death is extrication.
So pathetic and ironic,but it's no doubt.

My Reading Journal 4

This story was written by Hector Hugh Munro,a Scottish novelist,whose article aften satirize British society.

The story is talking about a prank.A fifteen-year-old girl,self-possessed young lady,who play a prank on Framton.She told him that there was a tragedy happened three years ago:out through the window,her aunt's husband and her two brothers went off for their day's shooting,they never come back.They were all three engulfed in a treacherous piece of bog,and their bodies were never recovered.That's why her aunt keep that window open,she believes they will come back someday.
In the deepening twilight,three figures were walking across the lawn towards the window;they all caarried guns under their arms.Framton lose his nerve,grabbing wildly at his stick and hat;the hall door,the gravel drive,and the front gate were dimly noted stages in his headlong retreat.
"Who was that who bolted out as we come up?" they asked.
"Framton,a extraordinary man,he dashed off without a word of good-by or apology.One would think he had seen a ghost."said Mrs. Sappleton,the girl's aunt.
"I expect it was th spaniel,"said the little girl calmly;"he told me he had a horror of dogs."
Romance at short notice was her speciality.

When is a prank no longer a prank?Once I played a prank on my freind.I told her that I incautiously spilt the beans what she told me.That makes her very nervous and frightened.Then I know that was no longer a prank so I apologize to her.Everyone has their endurance of the trick what we played on them,if we did exaggeratedly,they will be mad.Be aware of this,what we have done may offend others and make them feel uncomfortable,look before you leap.