Non- Fiction Reading response on "Smoke signals"

The article “Smoke signals”, by Alessandria Potenza is about the electronic cigarettes and how they are getting increasingly popular among young people. The article first talks about a 26 year old named Tiffany Harvey that has never smoked in her life, than she saw an electronic cigarette on Instagram, so she bought one and has been an e-cigarette smoker ever since. Electronic cigarettes are battery powered cigarettes that vaporize a liquid called nicotine.  The article says that, e-cigarettes are taking off in the U.S.A.  E-cigarettes also contain several toxic cancer causing chemicals. For that reason the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tried to ban them. Another  reason the FDA wanted to ban them was because some e-cigarettes have flavors like chocolate and vanilla.  Those flavors are very appealing to young people so the FDA banned all flavoring except flavors found in regular cigarettes. But even though e-cigarettes have toxic chemicals in them many doctors believe that e-cigarettes are the solution to help people quit smoking.   

             I think the author’s purpose for writing this article is to show that e-cigarettes may not be  such a bad thing despite the health problems it has. This is because according to the authors sources, e-cigarettes help some people quit smoking or at least quit smoking tobacco. The author also wants the reader know that young people smoking e-cigarettes have increased over the years and that young people that are smoking tobacco cigarettes have decreased over the years. Proving that it is helping people quit smoking tobacco cigarettes. One example that shows that  young people smoking e-cigarettes have increased is in this part of the text, “A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that the share of young people using e-cigarettes doubled in 2012.”  This proves that young people smoking e-cigarettes have increased. My thoughts on this article are that e-cigarettes can help solve the problems of smoking. I think that  e-cigarettes can destroy the tobacco cigarette industry and help people quit smoking because according to this article, “A growing number of doctors, however, are looking at e-cigarettes as the longest sought solution for of the deadliest-and most avoidable- public-health problems: cigarette smoking… ‘It’s a heck of a lot better than smoking tobacco,’ says Michael Spiegel, an expert on tobacco control.”  This shows why I think e-cigarettes can help solve the problems of smoking because the article states that a lot of doctors agree that e-cigarettes are solution for smoking and that e-cigarettes are better than smoking  tobacco cigarettes.

            This article has changed my thinking of electronic cigarettes, because I thought that electronic cigarettes would be much worse than regular tobacco cigarettes. But it turned out that electronic cigarettes are not as bad as tobacco cigarettes and they e-cigarettes can even help some people quit smoking. This text makes me wonder and want to do further research on, who first made cigarettes and why?

Read Response CTQ: How does Money Figure in this Text? Revised Version

This is based on the critical Reading Question: How does Money Figure in this text?

 

In the world we live in today, money is everything and greedy people would do anything to get it. But this world is not the only place where money is everything and greed is what drives people. The book, “The Ranger’s Apprentice The Icebound Land” by John Flanagan is about a boy named Will (the main character) and a girl named Evanlyn who are captured by the Skandians. The Skandians are a group of warriors that battle for anyone, but only if you pay them enough for the task. After hearing about the kidnapping of Will and Evanlyn, Halt, a powerful ranger goes on journey with Gilan, his apprentice, to rescue Will and Evanlyn. While reading this book I noticed that money in this book is taken very seriously and some of the characters are greedy and would deceive others to gain more money.

            One of the first things I noticed about money when reading this book was that some of the Knights were greedy, and took advantage of other people. This is shown in this part of the book:

This idiot is going to demand tribute from us to allow us to cross his precious bridge’… ‘It’s a form of highway robbery,’ Halt explained.  If there were any real laws in this idiotic country, people like our friend there would never get away with this.’  … Knights set themselves up at bridges or crossroads and demand that people pay tribute to pass. If they can’t pay tribute, they can choose to fight them. Since most travelers aren’t equipped to fight a fully armored knight, they pay the tribute (Flanagan 95).

This quote shows that some of the characters, in this case the Knights would deceive others to gain money because Halt himself says that it is a form of highway robber or in other words deceiving others to think that it is mandatory to pay a tribute. This also shows that money is taken seriously because the Knights blocking the way across the bridge are willing to fight anyone that can’t pay the tribute or aren't willing to pay the tribute.

            When the Skandians found out that Will burnt down the bridge they start thinking of the money they were being paid and whether or not they should deceive and abandon Morgarath’s army and leave with the money. This is shown in the book when a Skandian named Nordal is talking to the other Skandians and says:

For mine, we get out of here as fast as we can,’ he said ‘We only came for the  booty and there’s going to be a precious little of that now that the bridge is gone’ … Horak, I’m not here to help Morgarath take over Araluen ,” he replied. ‘Nether are you. We fight for profit, and when there’s no profit to be had, I say we go (Flanagan 193).

This quote shows that the Skandians are greedy people and when they deal with money they take it very seriously because they didn’t care at all if Morgarath’s army won the war.  All they really cared about was the money that they were paid. So as a result they wanted to abandon Morgarath and leave with what little money they had. This quote also proves that they are greedy because they called the money that they had, precious, that means that they gave the little money they had a higher value by saying it was precious. Another way this quote proves that the Skandians are greedy people is because Nordal said we should get out of here as fast as they can and that they only came for the booty and with no booty to be made, there is no point of them staying any longer.

Another example in the book where and some of the characters are greedy and would deceive others to gain more money is when Will, Evanlyn, Erak and his companions were at Three Step Pass. They were trying to blend in with Morgarath’s army of Wargals so they could escape with Will and Evanlyn as captives and sell them as slaves. This is shown when Erak sees Morgarath:

 Morgarath was here, directing operations. ‘Curse him!’ muttered Erak . ‘I’d hope he’d be out with the vanguard of the army. Keep moving you two!’ … ‘He(Morgarath) broke off, his gaze on the two smaller figures whom the Skandians had been trying, unsuccessfully, to shield from his gaze. ‘Who are they?’ he demanded. Erak shrugged. ‘Celts,’ he said easily. ‘We took them prisoner in Celtica and I’m planning to sell them to Oberjarl Ragnak as slaves. ‘Celtica is mine, Captain. Slaves from Celtica are mine as well. (Flanagan 213)

In this quote it shows Erak deceiving Morgarath because when Morgarath asked Erak who are they, Erak lied and told Morgarath that Will and Evanlyn were Celts.  Erak didn’t want Morgarath to know that he had prisoners with him because Morgarath said that all slaves from Celtica were his. That’s why he said, “Curse him I’d hope he’d be out with the vanguard of the army,” because Erak didn’t want Morgarath to be near him so he could escape with Will and Evanlyn without him interfering with the escape plan.  He did this so that he could sell Will and Evanlyn into slavery to make some profit off of them.

            This text relates to the world in a lot of ways. Mainly because the world we live in today is all about money. Another way this This book relates is because there are people in the world that do deceive people to earn more money like some of those street venders that sell fake headphones, shoes, and electronics. They make you think that the product is real but it isn’t. I doubt that they make and sell their products because they care about us. So the next time you see a wallet on the floor what will you do? Will you return it to the owner? Or will you keep it for yourself?