MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Hey, everyone...Why there are no posts recently? Haha...
It is holidays now and Christmas is coming!
Merry Christmas to everyone and I hope that you all enjoy your holidays.
Enjoy the festival! ^^

Best wishes from Michelle

Another Announcement

Dear lit students !!!! Here's another video by Mr Andrew for our presentation next monday. :D

Have fun watching. ;)

Hey Guys!

First up to the literature students !!!!

Here's a vid announcement from Mr Andrew!! Watch the vid. xDDD


And to all my dear classmates,

How are you guys?!!! It's been a long long time since we saw each other (a week or so?). Don't forget that our classes will commence this coming Monday, 23rd Nov Until 4th Dec. :D

See you guys in class! Hope you guys enjoyed our one week break :DDD




Lots of love
Angelaa

Wishes to all dear ex-classmate!

Good luck to all who take AS examination.. I m here wishing all of you all the best! Hope u guys n girls pass the exam with flying colours.. =)

Best wishes from
Marcus

Shout out

to the best classmates everrrr !

GOOD LUCK FOR FINALS!
Make sure you guys take care of yourselves and eat properly throughout the weekend.

GOOD LUCK PEE ELLE TWOOOOOOOO!!!!
Let's grab the chance while we can! :DDD

*hugs* :D



Lots of love and luck
Angela Lim

The 'Original' 'to be or not to be' soliloquy

In the unauthorized First quarto of 1603, Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" speech appears as:

To be, or not to be, I there's the point,
To Die, to sleepe, is that all? I all:
No, to sleepe, to dreame, I mary there it goes,
For in that dreame of death, when wee awake,
And borne before an euerlasting Iudge,
From whence no passenger euer retur'nd,
The vndiscouered country, at whose sight
The happy smile, and the accursed damn'd.
But for this, the ioyfull hope of this,
Whol'd beare the scornes and flattery of the world,
Scorned by the right rich, the rich curssed of the poore?
The widow being oppressed, the orphan wrong'd,
The taste of hunger, or a tirants raigne,
And thousand more calamities besides,
To grunt and sweate vnder this weary life,
When that he may his full Quietus make,
With a bare bodkin, who would this indure,
But for a hope something after death?
Which pusles the braine, and doth confound the sence,
Which makes vs rather beare those euilles we haue,
Than flie to others that we know not of.
I that, O this conscience makes cowardes of vs all,
Lady in thy orizons, be all my sinnes remembred.

Reading Shakespeare

Reading Shakespeare has dramatic effect on human brainDecember 18th, 2006 -->
Research at the University of Liverpool has found that Shakespearean language excites positive brain activity, adding further drama to the bard's plays and poetry.

Shakespeare uses a linguistic technique known as functional shift that involves, for example using a noun to serve as a verb. Researchers found that this technique allows the brain to understand what a word means before it understands the function of the word within a sentence. This process causes a sudden peak in brain activity and forces the brain to work backwards in order to fully understand what Shakespeare is trying to say.

Professor Philip Davis, from the University's School of English, said: "The brain reacts to reading a phrase such as ‘he godded me' from the tragedy of Coriolanus, in a similar way to putting a jigsaw puzzle together. If it is easy to see which pieces slot together you become bored of the game, but if the pieces don't appear to fit, when we know they should, the brain becomes excited. By throwing odd words into seemingly normal sentences, Shakespeare surprises the brain and catches it off guard in a manner that produces a sudden burst of activity - a sense of drama created out of the simplest of things."

The effect of functional shift on the brain. Credit: University of Liverpool
Experts believe that this heightened brain activity may be one of the reasons why Shakespeare's plays have such a dramatic impact on their readers.

Professor Neil Roberts, from the University's Magnetic Resonance and Image Analysis Research Centre, (MARIARC), explains: "The effect on the brain is a bit like a magic trick; we know what the trick means but not how it happened. Instead of being confused by this in a negative sense, the brain is positively excited. The brain signature is relatively uneventful when we understand the meaning of a word but when the word changes the grammar of the whole sentence, brain readings suddenly peak. The brain is then forced to retrace its thinking process in order to understand what it is supposed to make of this unusual word."

Professor Roberts and Professor Davis together with Dr Guillaune Thierry, from the University of Wales, Bangor, monitored 20 participants using an electroencephalogram (EEG) as they read selected lines from Shakespeare's plays.
In this initial test electrodes were placed on the subject's scalp to measure brain responses.

(The Pic above)

Professor Roberts said: "EEG gives graph-like measurements and when the brain reads a sentence that does not make semantic sense it registers what we call a N400 effect – a negative wave modulation. When the brain reads a grammatically incorrect sentence it registers a P600 effect – an effect which continues to last after the word that triggered it was first read."

Researchers also found that when participants read the word producing the functional shift there was no N400 effect indicating that the meaning was accepted but a P600 effect was observed which indicates a positive re-evaluation of the word. The team is now using magnetoencephalography (MEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMI) to test which areas of the brain are most affected and the kind of impact it could have in maintaining healthy brain activity.

Professor Davis added: "This interdisciplinary work is good for brain science because it offers permanent scripts of the human mind working moment-to-moment. It is good for literature as it illustrates primary human thinking. Through the two disciplines, we may discover new insights into the very motions of the mind."

Source: University of Liverpool