Sam Strutt and the Magic Bat Essay Example for Free

Sam Strutt and the Magic Bat Essay Sam Strutt was the best baseball player in the world. He could throw the ball farther and hit the ball harder than any other baseball player. He could catch any ball that was hit or thrown, and he ran so fast that he was a blur on the bases. Sam was a big man. He was almost seven feet tall. The muscles in his arms bulged. The muscles in his legs bulged. Sam played for a team called the Hometown Heroes. Sam was the star. Thousands of people came to see Sam Strutt play ball. They cheered every time he stepped up to the plate. They cheered when he hit the ball. They cheered when he ran around the bases. Mr. Dollars, the owner of the Hometown Heroes, gave Sam a silver bat. Sam hit 50 home runs with his silver bat. The next year, Sam went to Mr. Dollars. I am a star, he said. I want a better bat. Mr. Dollars gave him a platinum bat. It had dollar signs made of emeralds on the barrel. Sam hit 75 home runs that year. When spring came again, Sam said to Mr. Dollars, Give me a better bat. I can hit a hundred home runs if you give me a golden bat. So Mr. Dollars gave Sam a solid gold bat. On opening day, Sam arrived at the ballpark in a limousine. The crowd roared as he stepped up to the plate with his splendid new bat. Sunlight flashed off the golden bat as Sam took his practice swings. The crowd hushed as the pitcher wound up. He reared back and threw a splitter. Sam swung the mighty bat and missed. Again, the pitcher wound up. He tossed a curveball. Sam swung even harder and missed. The crowd began to murmur and mumble. Sam had two strikes on him. This was unthinkable. The pitcher wound up, kicked his leg way up high, swung his long arm way around, and fired a fastball. Sam took a mighty swing. He swung so hard he fell down. But he missed. Strike three! the umpire called. The huge crowd was silent. Sams bat had failed. Sam had failed. Sam had struck out. Sam struck out three more times in that game. The Heroes lost. In the next game he struck out four more times, and in the game after that, he struck out five times. The fans stopped coming. They didnt want to see Sam strike out. Sam tried his old silver bat. He struck out ten more times. He tried his platinum bat with emerald dollar signs. He struck out fifteen more times. Sam just could not hit the ball. Mr. Dollars was very angry. The people have stopped coming, he said to Sam. You have to hit home runs again. You must find a bat that works. The word went out. Sam Strutt needed a new bat. He needed a bat that would hit home runs. Men, women and children brought bats to the ballpark. They brought aluminum bats and manganese bats and oak bats and plastic bats. They brought long bats and short bats. They brought thin bats and fat bats. All the bats failed. Sam could not hit the baseball with any of the bats. On the day of the big Fourth of July game, only twenty-three people were in the stands to watch the game. Excuse me, Mr. Strutt. Sam looked down and saw a small boy holding a bat out to him. Is that a bat or a toothpick? Sam bellowed at the boy. The boy looked up at Sam. Its a magic bat, he said quietly. Sam took the bat from the boy. It didnt look magic. It looked plain and ordinary a beat-up old wooden bat with tape on the handle. Take your bat and go home, Sam snarled. I cant use an ordinary little bat like that. It is a magic bat, the boy insisted. Sam scowled. It doesnt look like a magic bat. Please try it, the boy pleaded. Sam took the bat. 3He held it up over his head and squinted at it. In Sams big hands, it did look like a toothpick. The boy smiled as Sam took the bat and stepped up to the plate. The pitcher wound up, kicked his leg way up high, swung his long arm way around and fired a fastball. Sam swung. Craaack!!! The ball soared over the center field fence. In the third inning, Sam hit another home run. In the sixth inning, he hit a triple off the left field wall. In the eighth inning, he hit the ball over the parking lot. The Heroes won the game. Where did you get this magic bat? Sam asked the boy as he handed him an autographed baseball. Peel back the tape on the handle, the boy said. Sam pulled at the tape. When it came loose, he pulled it off. He looked down at the handle of the bat. Sams eyes got wide. He looked at the boy. This is my bat, Sam said. This is my very first bat that I had when I was a boy like you. Scrawled on the bat in smudged pencil letters was the name Samuel Strutt. You tossed it over the fence into my yard when you joined the Heroes, the boy said. Sam spun the bat around in his big hands. He studied it as it rotated. Then he smiled. When I used this bat, baseball was fun. I loved to play the game. It really is a magic bat. Thank you. Sam sold the silver bat and the platinum bat and the solid gold bat. With the money he got for the bats, he built ten new baseball fields for the children in his hometown. He bought balls and bats and gloves and hats for all the girls and boys. He bought himself a new wooden bat. He hung the magic bat on pegs in the back of the dugout so he would never forget where the magic was. Sam hit 101 home runs that year. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE JRR Tolkien section.

The Plight of our Planet Essay -- Energy Sustainability

The young boy looks back from the loading ramp of the giant metal alloy ship, his breath billowing clouds of steam in the bitter air made cold by the now almost completely diminished ozone. He stares in disbelief at the endless pile of automobiles parked haphazardly to and fro like a child’s worn jenga blocks fallen from a poorly made tower in the vehicles owner’s frantic rush to get their families to the evacuation ships in time. How did it come to this ¬Ã‚ ¬? The forlorn boy wonders. When did it all go wrong in mankind’s endless quest to be bigger, faster, and more powerful than all the rest? As the nearly city-sized ship reaches the smoky horizon bound for humanity’s new home named Kepler-22b, he gazes one last time at the vast oceans, blazing a filthy orange fire as far as the eye could see from the final disaster that had sealed humanity’s fate on earth. If only they had stopped drilling in the oceans—the boy thinks. And as the distanc e grows and the bright fires fade, he tearfully waves goodbye to the now dying planet his race had called home for a millennia and slowly turns to go find his parents. Who is this distraught boy’s parents? Is it you? Or perhaps it is your children’s children that are living through this arguably inevitable reality. While the scenario presented is sensationally far-fetched, it is entirely possible. Perhaps not a mass exodus to a new found planet capable of sustaining life, and even if we were lucky enough to find such a planet it would likely not be accessible, nor needed in this generation’s lifetime. But the simple truth remains that earths sustainability is quickly diminishing due to a plethora of causes. Some of which are our societies numerous recent technological advances in the last century,... ... leaders of tomorrow. References Carbone, N. (2011, December 5). NASA finds planet in ‘Habitable Zone’ that could sustain life. Time Newsfeed. Retrieved from http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/12/05/nasa-finds-planet-in-habitable-zone-that-could-sustain-life/ Fornos, Werner. "No vacancy." The Humanist July-Aug. 1998: 15+. Academic OneFile. Web. 12 May 2012. Global Energy Use: Status and Trends. (2004). In Encyclopedia of Energy Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/estenergy/global_energy_use_status_and_trends Stoll, R. (2012). Green energy looks to hydrogen fuel. Retrieved from http://www.2facts.com/article/s2000033 Williams, C. (2011, July 28). Off-the-grid communities: 5 places carving a sustainable path. Retrieved from http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/responsible-living/stories/off-the-grid-communities-5-places-carving-a-sustainable-path

Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies

The two novels, Animal Farm by George Orwell and Lord of the Flies by William Golding were both written over 50 years ago, meaning there is much to be said about both. All you have to do is type in the name of each of the novels into Google and out pops tonnes of information about each. If someone were to research enough of the two books they would be able to see that they are quite similar in plot and themes. Both books take a look at a newly built society which is slowly destroyed by the characters or people within them.The concept of one having power over the rest is what corrupts the societies and ends in death and adversity for all others within the society. The authors both use their characters in the novels to portray what society might be like in that type of situation and use their actions to demonstrate how it can fall apart if the correct steps are not taken to maintain a functioning society. Therefore, both authors show how power can corrupt a society and create great har dship for the people ruled through its stimulating characters and their fraught actions.The main characters in both of the books are the ones who ultimately cause the societies to crumble. In Animal Farm George Orwell uses pigs to satire the leadership of Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky and how they manipulated their people into thinking what they are doing is right (NovelGuide). The pigs led a revolution on the farm owner to take the farm and leave it in the hands of all of the animals, instead of man. They stated that the farm would be run by the animals with no rules other then that to never act like a human (Orwell).Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which (Orwell 88). At the start of the revolution, there was no clear ‘leader’ of the anima ls and they did as they pleased, however the much smarter pigs started changing some of the rules that were set forth to make sure none of the animals would behave the way the humans had.The much smarter pigs took advantage of all of the other animals and started changing rules, giving them increasingly more power over the group. In the end, the power hungry pigs ended up becoming exactly what they set out to destroy, humans. The result of this corruption of power ended with a couple animals dying and others working night and day endlessly. In the novel Lord of the Flies author William Golding uses children lost on a deserted island to represent a newly formed society.Two boys choose to take different approaches to surviving on the island and running the rest of the group, so they split up into their own little societies. Jack, one of the leaders chooses a more violent role of surviving; he disagrees with the methods of Ralph (the other leader) and takes command of most of the boys (Golding). Jack began his adventure on the island as a normal boy just like any of the others, however after he was elected into power by all of his friends, it quickly got to his head. â€Å"I agree with Ralph. We've got to have rules and obey them.After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best at everything. So we've got to do the right things† (Golding 42). The power which is corrupting Jack causes him to do many things no person would think of doing while trying to survive (Bookrags). In the end, Jack’s power ended in the deaths of two boys and the utter destruction of an island. All in all, power was what lead the main characters in each of the novels to corrupt a society they had longed to be apart of, leading to deaths of others and the hardship of the rest.Both the pigs and Jack used manipulation and their power to control the others in their respective societies. Within Animal Farm the pigs used their smarts to out wit and manipulate the others into giving them power over the rest. When the revolution first happened, the animals established ‘The Seven Commandments’ which consisted of rules preventing any animal from acting like a human (Golding). Over time the farm animals grew suspicious of the pigs actions and reverted back to ‘The Seven Commandments’, which was no use since the pigs were the only ones that could read, and they changed the rules in their favour.‘It says, â€Å"No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets†,’ she announced finally. Curiously enough, Clover had not remembered that the Fourth Commandment mentioned sheets; but as it was there on the wall, it must have done so (Orwell 42). Over time the pigs became more and more like the humans, and with no questions asked as well since none of the animals understood what the pigs were up too. The pigs used the saying â€Å"Four legs good, two legs bad† to justify most of their actions to the less inte lligent animals (NeoEnglishSystem). The pigs rise to power andthe corruption of the animal farm was aided by the smarts the pigs possessed over the other less clever animals. In Lord of the Flies, main character Jack uses persuasion and other un-ethical tactics to recruit other children into joining his ‘group’. Some of these tactics include threatening and bribing the others in order for him to gain power over the majority of the kids on the island (Bookrags). Jack’s methods of gaining the majority of the boys on the island results in him having complete power of what goes on, on the island.â€Å"Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! † (Golding 168). Jack orders an attack on the so called ‘monster’ that is living on the island with them. Without second guessing him, his tribe attacks the ‘monster’ which turns out to be one of the boys. All in all, the corruption of the others in the society by the leaders using manipul ation and other methods to gain power is what leads to the ultimate demolition of the two novels societies.Due to their mad hunt for power and the means they went through to achieve it, the pigs and Jack had a bunch of repercussions for their actions against their respective societies. The pigs used their brains as a way to gain power and control of their group of animals, however by doing this it resulted in the deaths of a couple of the animals as well as the expulsion of one of the other pigs (Orwell). About half the animals on the farm rushed out to the knoll where the windmill stood. There lay Boxer, between the shafts of the cart, his neck stretched out, unable to even raise his head.His eyes were glazed, his sides matted with sweat. A thin stream of blood had trickled out of his mouth (Orwell 74). Even though the pigs are the ones that organized the revolution on the humans, they ended up becoming what they had feared. They over worked the other farm animals and made them thi nk it was all for a better cause (NeoEnglishSystem). Lord of the Flies’ main character Jack also had major repercussions for his actions. Jack did not put him self in the leadership role, he was chosen by Ralph to help him run the group of boys.Things quickly got out of hand for Jack and he soon wanted to lead all of the boys by himself instead of with Ralph. Jack’s actions to get into power are what corrupted the small society of boys and those actions came with the repercussions of death for two of the boys and the near death experience for another. If anyone peered under the bushes and chanced to glimpse human flesh it might be sameric who would pretend not to see and say nothing. He laid his cheek against the chocolate coloured earth, licked his dry lips and closed his eyes.Under the thicket, the earth was vibrating very slightly; or perhaps there was a sound beneath the obvious thunder of the fire and scribbled ululations that was too low to hear (Golding 220). Ja ck told his tribe that they needed to kill Ralph and the only way to find him was to burn the jungle down. Ralph ran for his life away from the blood thirsty tribe of children and the fire (Cliffnotes). Jack’s actions to gain power have dire repercussions for the two boys who ended up dying and Ralph who was chased and nearly killed if he had not ran into a Naval Officer.All in all, the actions of the main characters who attempted to gain power over the others in the society were what eventually lead to the corruption of both societies. In conclusion, both William Golding and George Orwell do an amazing job of demonstrating how power can corrupt a society by using their characters in their novels. Both of the novels give the reader an insightful look at how society might be if the leaders of our countries grew corrupt with the power that they held over the rest of society.

Violance in Video Games Essay - 922 Words

Violence Most of the time violence is considered as the worst when it comes to the bad effects of video games. A scientific survey (Anderson Bushman, 2001) has found a connection between aggressive behaviors and playing violent games where more the children play violent games, more tend be aggressive in behavior. Not only that but also they are more likely to have aggressive feelings and thoughts plus diminished aiding. It is said that the impact of playing violent games in children is compounded by the intuitive/interactive nature of the games. Children are remunerated for being more vicious or violent, most of the time in many games. The demonstration of violence is carried out over and again and the player is in control of the†¦show more content†¦There is massive variety in the measure of violence in these video games, ranging from 1.5% to 91.2% of game play, with a normal of 30.7% of them devoted to violence against other characters while no messages were provided not to us e violence. †¢ Hurting other characters was remunerated or needed for progression in 33 games (60%). 27 of selected games depicted deaths from violence, while shooting, action and adventure games prompting the most noteworthy amounts of deaths per minute. †¢ They identified noteworthy contrasts in the measure of violence among video game genres. All 3 adventure games, all 2 fighting games, the shooting game , the strategy game, and the simulation game that were selected contained violence, while only 2 of 12 sports games included violence that is not associated with normal play in a sports game. †¢ Their study discovered that video games accepted an Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) content descriptor for violence included massive violent actions than other games which are not rated as violent. Anyhow, they found that 14 of the 32 games (44%) which did not identify and rated as Violent by the ERSB even though those games included violent actions throughout the game. †¢ Characters in games used an extensive variety of weapons in their violent acts. Out of the selected games, 55 percent utilized the body as aShow MoreRelatedViolence Among Youth3553 Words   |  15 Pagesoptimal growth, psychologically vulnerable children particularly need a less socially toxic place to grow. Research indicates that the following social toxins affect aggressive boys more than other children: †¢ violence in the movies, television, and video games; †¢ large high schools have negative effects especially on students whose grades are below Average. †¢ drugs and guns. 4. Children need nurturing and caring adult’s who help them learn to break the â€Å"code of silence† dthat keeps them from reporting