Examples of Debate

Here are some kinds of debates:

Arguing with parents: This usually occurs in a house or in a car. These debates help to decide where a family will go on vacation, whether an allowance will be raised, and other similar decisions. These debates often get no where and waste peoples time. However, these can help make better decisions when everyone cooperates. These debates aren't structured well, so family members usually end up shouting at each other.

Political campaign: This occurs in a rented auditorium. These debates usually are held to show citizens what viewpoint different candidates have. These usually don't help people to arrive at a better decision, because the candidates generally already have a viewpoint which their party supports, and it probably won't change during the debate. This form of debate is structured. Candidates are given time intervals to talk. This helps to get the politicians' viewpoints across in the time given.

Court cases: This happens in court houses. These debates usually serve the role of determining whether someone is guilty or not. They definitely help to come to better decisions, because the final verdict is the sentence of whoever is on trial. These debates are structured, and this helps to come to a decision in a timely matter.

Three Cups of Tea Post 2-C

Chapters 5 through 8.

Chapter 5: Mortenson contacted many celebrities asking for donations, but he only got one. He also met Marina. He sold most of his things, then flew back.

Chapter 6: Abdul Shah at hotel, bargained for lumber, Manzoor Khan taught him to pray.

Chapter 7: Riding on truck

Chapter 8: Different villages try to change his plans, arrived at Korphe.

Three Cups of Tea Post 2-B

I'm not sure what to think of all this. It seems as if every time Greg Mortenson tries to work with people, they try to trick him.

For example, Ali was constantly trying to persuade Mortenson to buy his lumber, as I mentioned in my last post. He was giving Mortenson orange soda to get him in a good mood, but at least he didn't give him alcohol. But that wasn't as bads as the other happenings.

When Greg came to the village of Khane, he was introduced in a unexpected way:
"I wish to thank Mr. Girek Mortenson for honoring us and coming to build a school for Khane village," Janjungpa said.
"A school for Khane?" Mortenson croaked, almost choking on the chicken.
"Yes, one school, as you promised," Janjungpa said, gazing intently around the circle of
men as he spoke, as if delivering a summation to a jury. "A climbing school." (88; ch. 8)
Akhmalu jumped in and argued that he would build a school for the children of Khane. Mortenson was going to build a school for the children of Korphe. This began a heated debate about which was true, and the argument lasted for four hours, while everyone ignored Greg completely. This had been a set-up. Greg had been invited to a feast so that the community could influence him to build a Khane school.

Later, Changazi claimed to have shifted Greg Mortenson's school supplies over to his other office. When Greg arrived in Kuardu, another feast was held. "'I can promise you no arguments. They have already agreed to see that your school is built in our village before winter'" (93; ch. 8). Mortenson left the room instantly.

Although Greg Mortenson was being constantly harassed by the people of different villages, I don't altogether blame them. In a rich community like ours, a school is a must, as the government provides them. We take it for granted. However, in a poor country like Kuardu, that is not the case. But schools are still thought of as being important there, and I suppose everyone deserves to go to school.

From the front and back cover, I assume that the Korphe school was completed, and perhaps Greg went back to Khane and Kuardu to make schools for them, too.

Three Cups of Tea Post 2-A

Vocabulary:
1. quixotic (53): adj. chivalrous, idealistic, or impractical.

2. dacoit (91): n. A gang member in India or Myanmar.

Significant quote:
"Finally, Ali adjusted the crisp white prayer cap on his head and stroked his long beard before naming a figure. Abdul shot up out of his cross-legged crouch and clasped his forehead as if he'd been shot. He began shouting in a wailing, chanting voice ripe with insult" (65; ch. 6). Abdul Shah was helping Greg Mortenson buy materials for his school. They were buying lumber from a man named Ali. He was constantly trying to prove to Mortenson what a good deal it was, having his son jump up and down on the wood, in comparison to other wood. It sounds just like buying a car!

Three Cups of Tea Post 1-C

Introduction through Chapter 4

In the introduction, David Oliver Relin was flying in a helicopter to the place at which the book takes place. He then tells all the great things about Greg Mortenson.

He describes his failure at bringing Christa's bracelet to the top of the mountain K2. He explains what had happened last time he was there: Etienne had become paralyzed by going up the mountain too fast.

Then he met up with Mouzafer Ali, the porter. Mortenson got lost again though, and he ended up in Korphe. He was treated well by Haji Ali. Greg said he promised that he would build a school for him.

Mortenson returned to America, and goes into a storage closet. He described his childhood and his experience with his sister, Christa.

Three Cups of Tea Post 1-B

Dear Greg Mortenson,

I have enjoyed your book, "Three Cups of Tea," so far. The beginning was very boring, but it gets better. The problem with that is most people start from the first chapter, so someone might set the book down before they get to the good stuff, unless he is too lazy to go to the book store and buy a new Outside Reading book. The book starts with David Oliver Relin praising you up and down. Then you are just walking alone in the snow for several pages. It wasn't very exciting to read. "Mortenson tried to shake himself into a state of alertness" (10; ch. 1). I did too. Really, though, after you meet up with Mouzafer Ali, things start to get interesting.

My only other complaint is it's annoying when the book explains random anecdotes that don't amount to anything in the story. "Nearly a century earlier, Filippo De Filippi, doctor for and chronicler of the duke of Abruzzi's expedition to the Karakoram, recorded the desolation he felt among these mountains" (11; ch. 1). I have a gloomy feeling that the book might have been 50 pages shorter if you had stuck to the actual story that you are telling.

But the book has positives too, you know. I thought it was comical the way you were treated at the house in Korphe. You were treated with the greatest hospitality, and you didn't have any choice in the matter. "Haji Ali gripped his guest by the shoulders with his powerful hands and pushed him back on the pillows" (26; ch. 2).

By the way, sorry if I should be talking to David Relin instead of you. Both of you are listed as the author, so I really don't know how much control you had over the book.

Yours truly,
Adam Anderson

Three Cups of Tea Post 1-A

Vocabulary:
1. scree (10): n. loose rocks on the side of a mountain.
2. dementia (12): n. severe brain disorder.

Figurative language:
1. "So Mortenson lay beneath the stars salting the sky" (12; ch. 1). It's a metaphor, because he is comparing salt crystals to stars, because they are both small white dots.
2. "'It was like hanging from a rope strapped to a big sack of potatoes'" (14; ch. 1). This is a simile. Etienne was unconscious, so he wasn't helping them at all.
3. "Mortenson gathered a comet's tail as he passed into tawny fields..." (24; ch. 2). It is a metaphor. He is comparing the children that were following him to a comet's tail.

Outside Reading Book: "Three Cups of Tea"

• "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
• 2006
• Nonfiction
• 331 pages
• I think it will be challenging because it's a nonfiction memoir of an adult. The theme of building schools wouldn't be appealing to kids or teenagers for the most part.
  
• I chose it because my dad has already read it, and he said it was good. It was helpful that we already owned it, too. I looked at several different books, and this was the one that seemed to be the best.