4a Group # 1

1. Write the story title and author name. .25 point

The Big Valley by Arax
2. Summarize the reading in one brief paragraph; be specific in your summary. Remember that your classmates will rely on you for this information. 2 percent

Arax describes the area in Fresno where he now lives and also grew up. The place where he lives used to be an old fig orchard that his grandpa claimed in 1968 and built a custom house with a swimming pool in the backyard. The authors grandfather was quite the man; survivor of the Armenian Genocide, a young poet who came to America and was a picker until he could afford his own vineyard. The authors father grew up on the farm but left for football dreams and returned as a grocer first then bar owner. The old fig orchards are long gone from overnight development yet the figs roots remain in the ground, refusing to die. The blood of a farmer runs in the authors blood and he maintains his own small orchard and vegetable garden, yet he aches for a larger plot of land. He loves to mingle with the real farmers, the big goys as he puts it, to hear about the weather affecting their crops, record prices, and yields of crops. In mid-February there is the biggest farm equipment show in the world in Tulare, about an hour south of Fresno. The valley is run not by the calendar but by the harvest of the land, from April until November and cows milk in between. As he describes the surrounding area he points out that he never felt like they belonged to a rural or suburban classification but were a combination of the two. The land about ten minutes out of Fresno is flat without city development through if farmers have bad years they are sometimes forced to sell to developers. A town named Traver that came to be overnight in the 1800's prospered for a short time and vanished in the same fashion it had arrived. He describes the 2004 Agricultural Equipment show in Tulare county that people traveled from all over Western and the Mid-U.S. The show takes up 2.5 million square feet and deals with all kinds of farming issues. This is the same show that ten years earlier a revolutionary idea to use moving tracks as the military does on Catepillars. But here at this show the tire is back and in action. Each company is competing for the lightest footprint in soil. At the show he runs into brothers with whom he grew up and watched experience rough times in the agricultural market. He reminisces about his father and how life would have turned out if they had stayed in the farming business. Despite the fact that his father had no farm he persisted in growing small amounts in the backyard. Life took an unexpected turn when his father was shot and killed by two men, one of which was only apprehended after thirty years. 
3. Which was your favorite sentence or paragraph (include entire quote; use quote marks and page number)? 1 percent

"Maybe all kids are dumb to their place, but it hardly occurred to me back then that we lived amid seven million acres of farms from Bakersfield to Redding. Even surrounded by all those figs, we lived a decidedly suburban life. The country might as well have been an ocean away, so few times we touched it. "The country," my mother would chant to my father, as if it were some elixir. "Let's take a drive out in the country." It seemed that we were neither rural nor urban but some fraudulent variant of the two."

I really like this quote because when you're young you fail to realize that the vast majority of things around you and of life in general. Not everything is so black and white in life. Nothing is plain and simple and the gray areas are the toughest to sort out yet, naturally, they are the most interesting.
4. What did the reading make you think of? (be specific eg "There is a bridge in SF that spans 4 miles from SF to Oakland and in the middle of the bridge it crosses an island called Treasure Island. This story makes me think of that specific little island where I can see the entire city and bay area. That city was also in the news recently where .... ) .75 percent

This story makes me think of all the times I have been to the Big Valley where the vast majority of the land is farmland and never once have I looked at it or considered it in this same light. My sister lives there and my major concerns are all the bugs on my windshield  and the lack of anything interesting to do. It also reminds me of when I was a little girl my great grandfather died and it was his wish to be buried at the family ranch in North Dakota. In North Dakota the land is completely flat as far as the eye can see and primarily used for farming. I specifically recall the conversations of the grown-ups revolving around the yield of crops and offers from developers to purchase the land. 
5. What is one thing you did not know before you started the reading that you now know (again, be specific using concrete examples)? 1 percent

I did not know that there was seven million acres of farmland between Bakersfield and Redding. Also, J.C. Forkner built a fig empire in the 1900's using dynamite to blast away the hard soil to plant them. 

1. Write the story title and author name. .25 point

Transients in Paradise by Liu
2. Summarize the reading in one brief paragraph; be specific in your summary. Remember that your classmates will rely on you for this information. 2 percent

The author is walking around her hometown of Beverly Hills. It is a town marked by "glamour, wealth, and hunger for beauty." The emotions that characterize such a place are ambition, envy, lust, and greed. The author describes the many lavish and upscale aspects of life in this city run by the wealthiest, most famous, and shallow of people. It is a city of desire yet fear accompanies desire-they come hand in hand. According to Liu, fear and desire are always alive and well in Beverly Hills and she describes a number of instances in which this is quite apparent, to herself anyway. Beverly Hills seems as if it will be there forever, permanent, yet it is ever changing. The majority of residents of Beverly Hills were not born there, nor will they spend their last days there. Beverly Hills does not even have a hospital. Liu describes a wedding party she sees in a stretch SUV limousine dressed in their absolute best, full black tie and satin dresses, "pretty girls" and "tough boys" complete with a bodyguard who is "glittering in gold" drive by a homeless man who represents the truth of this town. The poor and the homeless are hardly given a second glance as the millionaires pass by on their way to shop and upscale stores like Armani and Prada. The rich and beautiful live in a fantasy world, they are unaware of real life, real emotion, and do not realize what truly matters in life. Liu talks about a man in a wheelchair that used to always show up outside a certain deli-Nate'n'Al's Deli-named Richard was unkempt, scruffy, wore camouflage greens yet was keen, alert, intelligent, and would look others in the eye with confidence and "reasoned conviction." Richard had a degenerative disease and stopped showing up. He had apparently once been an aspiring screenwriter in Hollywood but the disease got the best of him. He lived in a hotel room in downtown Los Angeles and was found dead by the hotel manager. He was missed by those who also frequented the deli-real people with real problems who care and know what matters. Liu describes the current between desire and fear as in some situations people think "better me or us than them or you" while at other times the thought is "better him or her or them than us." Beverly Hills has no bad areas, no slums, and pushes all the refuse, sickness and poverty to Los Angeles. Los Angeles gave up pretenses of glamour and prestige, and accumulated the worst of fears with open arms. This mortality continues to rise up and wash back into its origin, where consequently, nothing remains. Liu states that all people are transient in some form or another despite ones individual circumstances. 
3. Which was your favorite sentence or paragraph (include entire quote; use quote marks and page number)? 1 percent

"We are all transients of one kind or another. On our way into or out of wealth, into or out of sanity, beauty, love, health or death."

This quote attracts me because it is so undeniably true. We are all on our way into or out of some predicament or circumstance. Life is just like that and there is nothing can do about it.
4. What did the reading make you think of? (be specific eg "There is a bridge in SF that spans 4 miles from SF to Oakland and in the middle of the bridge it crosses an island called Treasure Island. This story makes me think of that specific little island where I can see the entire city and bay area. That city was also in the news recently where .... ) .75 percent

The reading made me think of my past weekend spent in the city (San Francisco) where I saw many homeless people begging on the street for money. Almost everyone passed them by, not even giving them the time of day. It reminded me of a class that I took last semester, American Cultures. My teacher, Jill Kelley-Moore, changed my life in more ways than one. I remember very vividly something she once told me regarding homeless people-everyone has a story. Most homeless people are not homeless by choice, circumstances force them to end up on the streets. They are people too and deserve to be looked in the eye and respected like everybody else. Watching everyone walk as possible and avert their eyes broke my heart. This story made me realize the person that I do not want to become. It made me want to be a better person.
5. What is one thing you did not know before you started the reading that you now know (again, be specific using concrete examples)? 1 percent

I did not know that there are no hospitals in Beverly Hills.

1. Write the story title and author name. .25 point

Showing Off The Owens by Jefferson-Parker
2. Summarize the reading in one brief paragraph; be specific in your summary. Remember that your classmates will rely on you for this information. 2 percent

Parker describes when he got to show his friend Brian the Lower Owens River as he really likes the river. They drove along Highway 395 by the San Gabriel Mountains. They were speeding down the highway and chatting when he began to reminisce about his childhood family trips around Ridgewood. Parker goes on to talk about the Owens River and all the mighty fish teeming within it in the past. Parker  talks about flyfishing and describes it as a "progressive disease" and starts out very subtly yet spread like wildfire. Parkers obsessive stage of flyfishing took a bit to build up. Now he is an avid and addicted fly fisher and there is no cure-only death. Brian, Parkers friend, noticed a rash on his hand that could only have come from something in dinner and breakfast. Parker gets extremely antsy as they get closer and closer to the lower Owens River since there is a wild trout section. Thoughts of fishing plague his mind. Parker talks about his imagination while fishing and how magical it is for him. They sat there until dark fishing and Parker caught two fish while Brian caught nine fish. Brians rash had spread all the way up to his elbows by this time. Brians mother had taught him how to fly fish and he is amazing at it, yet he is vague and not a good teacher himself. The rash got really bad and spread to his shoulders so they went to a super market for cortisone cream. They met a guide at eight in the morning named Tom who has been a fisherman all his life and survived the Perfect Storm. Tom took them on their boat and was one of the first to discover how to get the trout out of the cold water. They headed back to town in the rain, wen to an art exhibit to see a friend, then the book store to visit another friend. They then reached the Whiskey Creek Restaurant for dinner and drinks, the rash disappeared. They went back to the Creekside Inn and watched television and slept. 

3. Which was your favorite sentence or paragraph (include entire quote; use quote marks and page number)? 1 percent

"The foliage is flat gold under the brooding gray sky. The river is high-gloss black."

This description makes me feel as if I am sitting on the side of the lake myself, personally witnessing this scene. I love when descriptions pull you into the stories. 
4. What did the reading make you think of? (be specific eg "There is a bridge in SF that spans 4 miles from SF to Oakland and in the middle of the bridge it crosses an island called Treasure Island. This story makes me think of that specific little island where I can see the entire city and bay area. That city was also in the news recently where .... ) .75 percent

The story talks about the Sierra Nevadas which reminds me of the time my father took us, as in my sister and I, camping. We went to rough it for the weekend, tents and cooking food over the fire without modern amenities. The trip was going amazing  until it began to downpour out of nowhere, and to make matters worse there was a hole in the tent. We got flooded out and ended up having to drive three hours until we could find a hotel. The scenery in the Sierra Nevadas was just breathtaking and the description of the lake reminds me of the area. Also, the story mentions Bishop which is a town where my stepfathers mom lives. It is in the desert and is a tiny little town with not much there. We used to go during the winter time and go ice skating on the pond.
5. What is one thing you did not know before you started the reading that you now know (again, be specific using concrete examples)? 1 percent

Before reading this story I did not know that the Owens River ever even existed. 

1. Write the story title and author name. .25 point

The Distant Cataract About Which We Do NOt Speak by Mary Mackey
2. Summarize the reading in one brief paragraph; be specific in your summary. Remember that your classmates will rely on you for this information. 2 percent

MAckey slips into the water and begins to swim stealthily towards a group of Mallard ducks. She is swimming in an ice cold lake/dam from the Sierra snowmelt. As she nears the ducks they remain unaware of her presence. Mackey wonders why the ducks never notice her approach. The ducks continue their squawking, showing off for females, and grooming themselves. She gets close enough so that she could reach out and touch them. She is a duck lover and observer, she just likes to be among them. A momma duck with six little ducklings in tow and the momma duck sees her in her bright blue baseball cap and realizes she isn't a duck herself. She squawks and chaos among the ducks ensues. The ducks scatter and she is left alone in the water so she turns to swim back to shore. Mackey describes a time when she was swimming and something snuck up on her and she got scared because she thought it was a rattlesnake, so she acted exactly as the ducks had done. It was only a large beaver and they are usually not around during the day time. The beaver circled around her for awhile and then disappeared. She swam toward the shore and sat there with her husband drinking ice tea. They are on an island in the American River in Sacramento. Sacramento is of course the capital of California so it is densely populated. Mackey and her husband like to pretend that they are not a mere five minutes from their house but located on a remote part of the state where they are alone and not near any developed areas. Some people in Sacramento actually kayak to work and there are seventy-five thousand Russians living in Sacramento County. Congregations gather along the banks of the river. They once found a very odd offering to the goddess Oxum made by an African -Brazillian religious group called Candomble. Another time they came across a priest blessing the river with incense in from of his congregation. Mackey feels these fail to compare to the night they found the river full of small floating lanterns with a Japanese priest chanting in a boat as the lanterns floated in his direction. It was a traditional ceremony for souls who were lost at sea and to commemorate those who died at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. 
3. Which was your favorite sentence or paragraph (include entire quote; use quote marks and page number)? 1 percent

"Above the lanterns, a full moon rose into the sky, bright and large as a second sun. The flames swirled in the current the nigh primroses blossomed and the beavers were silent, and for a few moments the American was a river of light."
4. What did the reading make you think of? (be specific eg "There is a bridge in SF that spans 4 miles from SF to Oakland and in the middle of the bridge it crosses an island called Treasure Island. This story makes me think of that specific little island where I can see the entire city and bay area. That city was also in the news recently where .... ) .75 percent

The reading made me think of the lake near my house where my family and I would always go to feed the ducks. We would sit there for hours and bring loaves of bread  for the ducks. We would swim and hang out on the lake and bring the dogs. There are plenty of geese there that go crazy and attack you if you get even semi close. Also as Mackey describes it as her escape and way to get away from everyday life and the developed area of Sacramento it reminds me of our family ranch where I go to get away. It is my sanctuary. 
5. What is one thing you did not know before you started the reading that you now know (again, be specific using concrete examples)? 1 percent

I did not know that Seventy-five thousand Russians live in the Sacramento County.