Reading and Reasoning: War Poetry

1. The gun he is describing here is a canon.
2. The “jackies” are pirates at sea. They would be singing war chanties because they are enjoying their attack on a ship.
3. He means that the shovel is very similar to the gun. The gun is used to attack or kill someone, which can cause trouble or bring justice, similar to the shovel. When you loosen turf using a shovel it is like a gun causing trouble while leveling the sod is like a gun bringing justice and order back.
4. The poem talks about people blindly obeying orders, which do and undo things.
5. It is trying to show irony in the poem by using complete opposite words. The persona is very fierce and strict towards the soldiers and citizens, the persona commands both soldiers and citizens, he does not ask politely.
6. It is definitely harder to built a society back up. In the recent events happening around the world, the earthquake that struck Japan is a good example. Japan is finding it really hard to rebuild their country, many people is injured and they do not have sufficient resources. Another example is rebuilding a house. It takes only a few hours to demolish a house but might take a few years to build it back up again.
7. It shows the sounds of soldiers driving large loud trucks. It represents an army of soldiers riding in huge trucks and tanks crushing houses and whatever is in its way.
8. A “king” who was kicked under the dust recently is the Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi. He was found out to be having sexual relationships with women, even paying for a service from prostitute, Karima El Mahrough. He should not do these things because he is a leader of a country, as a leader of a country he should set a good example. He should be ashamed of himself, many people have definitely lost respect for him. He has been “kicked under the dust” because he will not be someone who is respected anymore, instead he earned himself a bad reputation.

One sentence narrative scene

We were in the scorching hot sun trudging over to the towering milo truck to grab a drink as it was sports day and everyone was having the time of their lives cheering the fervent participants on the track on as they were running a race which seemed to grab everyone's attention on the stands where there was a magnificent bird's eye view of the incredible events that were happening on the track which was the most electrifying race of eight runners competing and it was an extremely close fight but suddenly the runner in lane four tumbled to the ground with crash and everyone gasped and stared in horror as all the runners continued to dash to the finish line with all their might except one who stopped running and turned around to help the injured fellow who was lying flat on the red rough track

Same-sex marriage

Singapore has never allowed homosexuality in the country. It seems that the Singapore government takes homosexuality very seriously. According to an article, Singapore criminalizes "gross indecency" between men, which includes consensual, private adult homosexual acts. The penalty is up to two years in imprisonment.
Singapore is not likely to legalize homosexuality any time soon. Mr Jonathan Cheng said in a letter to the forum that homosexuality is "harmful" to the society. Mr Cheng says that homosexual acts contribute to actual social harms, namely the low birth rate, or an increased risk of venereal diseases. This shows that Singapore will not legalize homosexuality because the Singapore government does not feel that homosexuality will do any good to the development of Singapore as a city. What Mr Cheng said shows that legalizing homosexuality would lead to other problems such as the falling birth rates. By legalizing homosexuality, there may be some straight people who get influenced and resulting in a bigger population of homosexual beings.
Singapore is not likely to legalize homosexuality. In Mr Jonathan Cheng’s letter to the forum, he goes on to say that the majority has the right to impose its vision of mortality over the rest of the society. As the population of people who are straight is definitely much bigger than the population of people who are homosexual, it should be right that the people who are straight to influence the homosexuals and impose that it is not alright to be homosexual. From Mr Cheng’s words, homosexual practices are disgusting and immoral. As such the Singapore government does not support homosexuality and thus will not legalize homosexuality.