Finlandia Women's Basketball Club aims for victory

By Kana Ito

Now that it is October we are into basketball season at last. And FUWBBC [Finlandia University Women’s Basket Ball Club] started to practice in earnest. This year, four freshmen joined in, so we now have 12 members.

Last season, we could not win. So this season, our goal is to win. Just like that.

There was a girl called Cathy on this team. She was the captain and a good player.

One day an unfortunate thing happened. She suddenly left FUWBBC. The members were sad and felt down.

But our coach said to us, "Don’t lose our goal! You have to think about what you should do!!"

Now, we have only 11 members in FUWBBC. But the women got over the sad event, and FUWBBC’s teamwork is getting better and better.

Aim for victory!!

I want to see this team win. I’m looking forward to FUWBBC’s reaching their goal.

Soccer team sets goals for improvement

By Toshiyuki Mita

My high school soccer ended at the moment the referee blew the whistle at the end of a game two years ago. In that game the opposing team was a very strong team from a Korean high school in Aichi Japan. It was the first qualifying round of the prefecture tournament. The result was a complete defeat of 0-2. It was very mortifying.

Toshiyuki Mita (far left, front row), the author of this article, is pictured here with his high school soccer team. Click on photo for larger version. (Photo courtesy Toshiyuki Mita)

But our team accepted the challenge. Although our team had been very weak for the previous six months, we participated in the prefectural tournament.

We held many meetings. At the meetings, we chose to take soccer more seriously. Our goals were to enter the prefectural tournament and to make the second round.

We ran 10 kilometers every day. So it was a hell of a practice. What feeling did we have from soccer practice? We had only the memory of running in our head.

We had confirmed our goals before practice every day. And we wrote the goals on paper many times.

We are very satisfied though we were able to accomplish only one of two goals -- making it to the first round.

Japanese pitchers score in Major League Baseball

By Takaaki Niikura (Nick)

The Red Sox beat the Indians in the American League Championship and got the ticket to the 2007 World Series. At the pitching mound there are two Japanese pitchers. The Red Sox’s starting pitcher in the championship game was Daisuke Matsuzaka, who is Japanese. (He was bought by The Red Sox for 100 million dollars.) 　　　Matsuzaka allowed just two points in five innings and was the winning pitcher.

After 　Daisuke Matsuzaka, Hideki Okajima also went to the mound. He is also Japanese, and he joined the Red Sox this year. After doing a great job of pitching in the regular season, he was chosen for the All Star games. Okajima shut out two innings perfectly, so he also contributed to the Red Sox's American League pennant win.

They played in the 2007 World Series and they won!

The two men are very important players. At one time the Japanese baseball league bought many American baseball players, but now American baseball teams want Japanese players even if it takes so much money. We are proud of them. Now that the Japanese players show an ability for playing baseball equal to that of American players, someday a Japanese league will be strong.

Note: For a photo of Matsuzaka and Okajima, visit this Web site:

http://mlb.yahoo.co.jp/photo/?f=3813

Lab #7: Update: Climate change: Due Wednesday, Oct. 31

Read at least two recent newspaper or magazine articles (from two different publications) on climate change or global warming. Read them in English only and make a list of 5 new vocabulary words you learned from context or from looking up the definition in an English-English dictionary. Write a summary of each article. Try to find two facts and two opinions in each article and list them on your paper. If possible find articles that talk about climate change in different parts of the world, for example, the Arctic (melting of the ice, loss of wildlife, etc.), the tropics (hurricanes and tsunamis) and your own country, Japan. Suggestions: www.npr.org and National Geographic Magazine have published several articles on these topics. If you use Internet articles, please send me the links on email. This must be handed in by Wednesday, Oct. 31. See also the articles on Keweenaw Now. I sent you the links.

ESL Reading: Updated Calendar of assignments: Oct. 15-Nov. 2

Monday, Oct. 15: Preparation: Be ready to hand in the lab assignment due today. Review the vocabulary of Unit 4, Sports. If you did not finish pp. 30-31, do the Before You Read, Reading, ex. A and B. (I collected this Friday from some of you.)

In class: We will go over p. 31 and do ex. C together. We will also do the Wrap-up, A and B, p. 32.

Wednesday, Oct. 17: Preparation: Review vocabulary and study for the Quiz on Unit 4, Sports. Finish B in the Wrap-up, p. 32.

In class: Short vocabulary review. Quiz on Unit 4.

Friday, Oct. 19: Mid-term break. No class! Happy weekend!

Monday, Oct. 22: Unit 5: Weather. Preparation: Write your answers to the questions on p. 33. Look up words you don’t know in the list of Vocabulary and put the words in the correct list. (on your homework paper). Also do the Before you read, Reading and ex. A, After You Read, pp. 34-35.

In class: We’ll go over your answers and we’ll do ex. B and C, p. 35, in class.

Wednesday, Oct. 24: Unit 5: "Nature's weather forecasters." Preparation: Do the Before you read, p. 37. Then do the Reading to check your answers according to the information on p. 36. Then do After you read, ex. A and B. For B mark T (true) only those sentences that are true according to the reading on p. 36. If it is not clear from the reading whether true or false and you think it might be true, put a question mark [?].

In class: We'll go over your answers and we'll do ex. C, p. 37.

Friday, Oct. 26: Unit 5: "Could you survive a natural disaster?" Preparation: Before you read, p. 39, by writing one piece of advice to go with each heading. Then read the text and see if the author gave the same advice. Do ex. A, filling in the headings where you think they should go in the text. Then do ex. B. Put the number of the picture and the type of disaster on your paper.

In class: We'll go over your answers on p. 39, and we'll do C together.

Monday, Oct. 29: Wrap-up, p. 40: Do A and B. Then add two more questions to the interview. Ask at least one American friend the 5 questions and write down the person's answers on your homework paper. Try to find the "weather words" on the card given out in class Friday. Put as many of these words as you can in your vocabulary notebook with definitions or sentences to show the meaning.

In class: We'll go over your vocabulary answers, and we'll interview one another and compare answers to the questions on weather. Bring any questions you want to ask about the vocabulary of Unit 5.

Wednesday, Oct. 31: Hand in the lab assignment on climate change. Review vocabulary for Unit 5. We will have a short review and the Quiz on Unit 5.

Friday, Nov. 2: Unit 6: Clothes. Preparation: Read page 41 and answer the questions on your homework paper. Do the Vocabulary exercise at the bottom of the page. Write the meaning of each word in italics on your paper. Then answer questions about the people in the picture. Do the Before you read, scanning, reading (p. 42) and ex. A, p. 43.

In class: We'll discuss the questions on p. 41 and go over your answers on p. 43. Then we'll do B and C on p. 43.

Lab Assignment #6: Sports page

Due Monday, Oct. 15: 1. Read at least 2 newspaper or magazine articles about your favorite sport. If you do not like sports, read 2 articles that criticize athletes for cheating, taking drugs, etc. (There was an Olympic track star in the news recently who must give up her medals because of taking drugs. She also lied about it.) If you read the articles on the Internet, please email me the link. You may also read about a sports event in Finlandia’s student paper or the MTU Lode if you wish. Write a summary of each article and give the source and date on your paper. Make a list of at least 6 new vocabulary words you learned from reading both articles (total of 6 or more) with the meanings. Put these on your homework paper and in your vocabulary notebook.

Due Monday, Oct. 22:

2. Use one of your articles as a model if you wish and write a sports article or editorial (opinion column) for a sports page to be published on the class blog. If you write a news article, it can be about a real game or match you watched or it can be imaginary. Type and double space the article.

3. After you have written your article, work with at least one other student to decide what your headlines should be. Email me your story with the suggested headline by Monday, Oct. 22. You may also submit a photo to go with your story and a caption to describe who is in the photo and what they are doing.

I may ask you to revise (rewrite) the article before we publish it. We may also try to print the stories later in the week and put the page together as a team. See “Sports and you,” p. 32 in your textbook.

ESL Reading Assignments: Oct. 8-12

Monday, October 8. Unit 4: Sports

Preparation: Answer the questions on page 25 in complete sentences on your paper. Find the meanings of the vocabulary words at the bottom of p. 25. Write the definitions in your own words if you are able to figure them out from the context. Do this on the homework paper. If the words are new for you, put them in your vocabulary notebook also. Also do the Before you Read, Scanning of the Reading and ex. A on p. 27. (Read the article on p. 26 in order to answer A).

In class: We will discuss the questions on p. 25 and will do B and C on p. 27.

Wednesday, Oct. 10. “Extreme Sports”

Preparation: Do the Before You Read and Scanning of the Reading (pp. 28-29). Read p. 28 and do ex. A. Try to figure out the meaning from the context in the article and write down the hints you found (words that suggested the meaning).

Extra credit: If possible, find a magazine or newspaper article (from library or Internet) on an extreme sport and write a short summary of it to report to the class. If it’s on the Internet, please send me the link on email.

In class: We will go over your answers and will do ex. B and C in class. If there is time we’ll discuss your articles.

Friday, Oct. 12. “Olympic Games”

Preparation: Do the Before You Read and Scanning of the Reading (pp. 30-31). Read the article carefully and do A and B, p. 31.

In class: We’ll go over your answers and discuss ex. C.