AP English Times

    Before the first period bell rings, the lunchroom is quiet except for the noises coming from the kitchen, where the lunch ladies are preparing to serve free breakfast to a crowd of hungry, loud teenagers.  The white tables are all lined up next to one another and they remain white for the time being.  Meanwhile, the blue floor is clean, having been swept and mopped the day before, but it waits to be coated with dropped foods and spilled drinks by the hundreds of students that occupy the lunchroom each period of the school day.  At the front of the lunchroom, a laptop is set up with an ID scanner connected to it.  The first bell rings and the students line up to swipe their student ID cards to get into the lunchroom with a dean attentively supervising lunchroom activity.  Between every first and late bell after first period, the lunchroom staffs rush to clean as much left over garbage, food and drinks off the table.  By fifth period, the cafete...

        As young kids, it is drilled into our heads that we need to do well in school and get into a good college, and by getting a degree we will be able to get a good job.  All kids are put through the long process of a formal education from the early age of about five whether they like it or not.  Most kids start from pre-K or kindergarten and gradually advance through each grade – aside from the very smart kids who skip a grade or two – until twelfth grade when all high school students are expected to apply for colleges and continue their studies in specified fields of their choice. As an eleventh grader, I am always being told that I need to get good grades so that I will be accepted into a decent college and get a reliable job.  From a young age, children in school are constantly told and expected to go to college and receive nearly two decades of formal education so that they can receive a college degree. And most people actually do nee...

      The significance of corn-pone opinions is evident in past and present societies.   Renowned novelist, Mark Twain, in his essay, “Corn-Pone Opinions,” incorporates the rhetorical devices of anaphora and allusion to help the readers acknowledge the power of social influence on behavior. The artistic effects of Twain's writing are constructive to establishing the purpose of his essay.  Twain first uses anaphora while telling his story about a past encounter with a young black man and he introduces the idea of public opinions.  He reveals the idea that if a black man were to prosper, “he must train with the majority...he must think and feel with the bulk of his neighbors...He must restrict himself to corn-pone opinions...He must get his opinions from other people, he must reason out none for himself; he must have no first-hand views.”  The repetition of the words, “he must” emphasizes that because of public opinions, people think they have to act or ...

      Abortion is a procedure that millions of women go through every year, usually as a result of an unwanted pregnancy.  This is the equivalent of killing millions of innocent human lives.  Do you really want it be responsible for killing your own child?  According to the Mayo Clinic, a fetus has already developed its brain, spinal cord, and other organs by the third week of the first trimester. Therefore, you are not just getting rid of a cell, you are killing a human being.  Even abortionist are uncertain about abortion operations.  As Dr. Benjamin Kalish said, "Even now I feel a little peculiar about it, because as a physician I was trained to conserve life, and here I am destroying it ." Life is meant to be preserved, not destroyed, especially if the life has barely started.        Imagine feeling guilty for the rest of your life because of this one decision.  Guilt and regret are not the only things that come with ...