The ACT

I don't like the ACT. I'm taking it for what is probably the last time this Saturday and the more I think about it the more it confuses me. The test is supposed to be a measurement on what you have learned in high school, but every time I take the ACT I find that this is not the case. The reading section is not all like we do in class. The prompts are short and require little critical thinking or analysis. The answers to the questions seem to always be clearly stated in the text or can be inferred with little thinking. I like that the questions are easy, I just don't feel as if they accurately portray the level at which someone can read. The science section also irritates me. By the time I make it the science part, my brain hurts and I want to go home. Nothing about the science portion requires any substantial scientific knowledge. It is more a measure of your ability to analyze graphs and data under time restraints. The prompts and passages seem to be thrown in for distraction and to make you waste time trying to understand what they mean. The only thing remotely difficult about the English section is the time limit and that really doesn't matter since most of the questions are common sense. Correcting sentences like "I seen her go to the Walmart" is hardly a challenge. The math part is the only section that actually requires you know something about the subject. But like the others, it's difficulty primarily comes from the time limit. I think the ACT could become a better test if the reading section actually required you analyze a passage like a college student would, if the science section required you to do more then interpret data, and if the time limit was extended to allow more accurate results.

Movie Analysis: There Will Be Blood.

During fall break, my parents convinced me to watch "There Will Be Blood" with them. A movie about a turn of the century oil man who buys land in towns and pumps for oil. This movie, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, is loosely based on progressive writer Upton Sinclair's 1927 novel Oil! I decided to blog about this movie since it is one of few movies in recent time that I would classify as being truly "literary" in nature. 

On the outside the movie appears to be about a simple oil man and the consequences of him drilling for oil in small western town. However, with further analysis it is clear that the movie is very complex with numerous themes about greed and religion. The movie is more then two and a half hours and uses every minute to focus on character development and plot. Throughout the movie it is revealed how insane the protagonist, Daniel Plainview is. He uses his son to make himself appear appear more innocent and welcome to strangers. When an oil well bursts, injuring his son, he views it as a chance to make more money from the excess oil.

 Religion is brought into the story when Daniel meets Eli Sunday, the local preacher for the town the story is set in. Eli plans on using the money brought in from the oil to spread the word of god, whereas Daniel wants to use the money to build an oil pipeline to the Pacific Ocean. The two men constantly try to humiliate the other. This conflict finally results in the epic climax when the question of which is stronger, greed, or religion, is raised. 

In my opinion, this movie definitely qualifies as being literary. The amount of attention to detail in the dialogue and character development is huge. The plot is exciting while still being realistic and believable. 

Daniel drinks Eli's milkshake.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKQ3LXHKB34 

Virtual Textbooks by 2015

I think that having virtual textbooks replace the traditional ones would be good for students and schools. Other then being heavy and usually boring, I never thought anything was wrong with textbooks. They are a cheap and effective way for a high school student to learn. However, the same can't be said for college students. Every person who has ever gone to college seems to agree that their textbooks are ridiculously overpriced. Having a virtual textbook where a student could just download new editions to the device sounds like a much cheaper solution to expensive books. Students would also be able to get the most up current version of books. This would be important to science textbooks since science is constantly changing.  Having video clips to help students sounds practical and beneficial to learning; but I don't think the video content would be any better then videos that could be found online. The only major problem i could foresee with virtual textbooks is that teenagers are stupid and wouldn't be able to keep their tablet intact for a full school year. Whether or no adopting virtual textbooks will put the United States on par with South Korea for education is doubtful. For students who actually use their textbooks a tablet would not change much. For students who never utilize their textbooks, a virtual textbook would just be a more advanced way for them not to learn.