Paraphrasing - Correct Way to Start Baby on Solids

Original Passage

Protein-rich food can be harmful for babies because it imposes a heavy burden on metabolism, according to German child health authorities.
         They recommend cooking at home and avoiding pre-prepared foods where possible. Fruit, vegetable and grain mashes are more than adequate for an infant, they say. Baking or roasting and steaming are the preferred when cooking homemade baby food.
         Foods such as sweet potato, white potato, carrots, parsnips and squash, peaches and pears are wonderfully flavorful when baked. Baking is preferred as the most nutrients are retained.
         Most paediatric sources recommend cooking fruits for babies who are under eight months old. Bananas and avocado are an exception.
                                                                                                                                          
Paraphrased Passage       

          Metabolism of babies is too weak to handle protein-rich food. Pre-prepared foods are rich in protein. Hence, German child health authorities advocate that infants should take food cooked at home and avoid pre-prepared foods.

          Other than that, baking and steaming are recommended when cooking homemade baby food as those cooking methods enhance the flavor of baby's favorite foods such as sweet potato, white potato, carrots, parsnips and squash, peaches and pears. The reason baking is chosen as method for homemade baby food is because nutrients in foods can be retained by using this way of cooking. 

          Cooking fruits for baby is a good choice as well. Nevertheless, some fruits like the avocado and bananas are not suitable to be cooked. 

The Lack of Necessary Skills for the Modern Workplace.

          In the workplace, relationship among the peers is intensely crucial in determining the job satisfaction of the peers and harmony of the environment. In this context, effective communication skills appear to be one of the necessary skills one needs to equip when they step in the workplace. Lacking of effective communication skills seems to be a problem as it could harm the relationship between the peers, causing one to work in an unhappy environment because of the presence of another unfavorable colleague. It is possible that the unsatisfactory relationship stems from the misunderstanding with one another. If that is the case, increasing the communication with the disliked one in the workplace may at the same time enhance the comprehension of that person. It seems that all of the efforts to maintain the desirable and harmonious relationship require effective communication skills. Hence, training aimed at boosting the employees' skills on dealing with others should be provided by the employers. Individually, peers could have gatherings among one another to enhance the mutual understanding.   

The Library, The Internet, and The Academic Life.

Compare and contrast libraries and the Internet as the two major sources of information for use in academic written work.

The appreciation of knowledge by our ancestors can be obviously seen with the creation of the first library 3200 years ago. The act of visiting the library with the aim of gaining knowledge or gathering information is passed down millenniums later. In the past centuries, the library had become a frequently-visited place for the general public, especially the academic scholars. Nevertheless, with the invention of the internet in the 1950s, digital information expands and academic library use is in a chronic state of decay. Though facing the challenges presented by the internet, extinction of the academic library use is not occurring. In other words, a great number of people still see library as the most ideal place to seek for information for use in their academic written work whereas others claim that the internet is certainly the most excellent means to look for academic materials. Both views are subjectively correct. Strictly speaking, internet and the library are undeniably comparable to each other when it comes to their handiness as sources of information for academic scholars.

In most of the academic written works, citations and references on where each particular material is derived from are required. That shows the reliability of sources is highly valued in the academic world. In this context, the reliability of sources from the internet, in which everyone is granted the freedom to post anything they wish, is lower than information gained from the library. The library offers numerous books published by well-known publishers after they are reviewed by prestigious researchers and authors in their respective fields. In addition, majority of the college students are not equipped with the ability to wearily filter for the reliable information on the internet. They would be unaware even if they have included undependable information from the internet into their written work. On the other hand, as mentioned earlier, collections of books in the library are trustworthy. Citing from those books enhances the reliability of one’s academic written work.

 In terms of convenience and speed, the internet is in the van as compared to the library. Physiologically, human brains are designed to favor simplicity rather than complexity. That explains why between the complex processes of extracting desired information from the book and clicking the mouse to select wanted material effortlessly, people often go for the latter. Sitting in front of the computer screen and expose ourselves to a vast amount of desired information is pleasant and less tiring, yet thumbing through books to look for materials takes hours and when the material we want is not in the book, we have to begin flipping another book again. From here we can see that, the internet serves as an appropriate source of information for academic scholars who frequently complete their academic written work few days before the deadline as it is more time – saving as compared to checking books by books in the library.

Is the nearest library situated more than 1 kilometer from you at this moment? Are you accessible to the internet now? If we answered yes to both of the questions, we might find the coverage of internet is undoubtedly more widespread than the library. Back to the topic, the ease of accessibility of information is another factor that differentiates the internet and the library. As technology becomes increasingly available, scholars nowadays no longer require going to the library to seek for materials for their academic work. As long as both the laptop and the Wi-Fi are present, academic scholars today are able to begin writing for their academic papers. Contrary to the internet, we need to be in the library in order to welcome the influx of vast information through physically contacting with the books.

 Summing up, the internet and the library are handy sources of information for scholars’ academic written works. In addition, two of the major sources come along with advantages as well as disadvantages. It depends on the scholars on the way they utilize both ways. If the internet and the library are used intelligently, they are able to complement each other, reducing the time needed for scholars to complete the academic papers, at the same time heightening the reliability of those academic works. 

Issues Related to Adolescents

i)                    Internet addiction

          The internet has plenty of information suitable to fulfill the curiosity of adolescents, causing them to stay up late, wasting time supposed to work on other activities. Along with the internet addiction, young people grow fond of hanging down their heads, consecrating their attention to smartphones, Ipad, and other similar tablet computers. Spending an unreasonable amount of time daily on that kills our brain cells. Compulsive internet use can appear as functionally destructive as compulsive drug use or gambling. For a long term, our overall thinking ability is sabotaged, and we get closer to becoming a fool.  

          Enhancing our self-control solves the problem. Every morning, we should persuade ourselves that we are stupid enough and it is indeed needed to reduce the usage of the brain-cells-killer to avoid becoming more foolish.   

ii)                  Breakfast omission

          For most young people, the breakfast is usually taken after 12 p.m. Occasionally, we skip the breakfast on purpose, deeming that by doing so our weight will be reduced. Ironically, studies have repeatedly indicated that skipping breakfast consistently results in lacking of energy, gaining of weight and poor nutrition. Also, experts have confirmed that poor nutritional status from skipping the breakfast impairs our mental development. Again, for a long-term, we get closer to becoming a fool.

         Enhancing our self-motivation solves the problem. Every morning, we should persuade ourselves that we are stupid enough and it is indeed needed to maintain the intake of breakfast every day to avoid becoming more foolish.  

iii)                Unhealthy food consumption

          Fast food, instant noodles, and snacks become the common main meals for most adolescents as they are delicious, cheap and can be conveniently obtained. We do know they are unhealthy, but when hunger comes together with laziness to seek for healthy food, we surrender and grab any edible objects around us. Unfortunately, experts have again confirmed that eating junk food regularly results in weight gain, cardiovascular problems and nutritional deficiencies. Nutritional deficiencies hinder our brain cells’ activities. Again, for a long-term, we get closer to becoming a fool.

          Enhancing our self-control solves the problem. When the stomach emits the hunger signal and junk food is at the easily reachable distance, we should persuade ourselves that we are stupid enough and it is indeed needed to reduce the consumption of unhealthy food to avoid becoming more foolish.  

iv)                Plump perception

          Often, our close friends comment about our statures when we first meet them after holidays, like saying “you grow fat!” directly. Occasionally, we honestly reveal our “body expansion” through asking our friends, “Do I look fat?” Also, it is not uncommon that we commonly listen to people around us complaining about their body size. Thinking ourselves is plump, but in fact we are socially acceptable as normal (Body Mass Index (BMI) is below 25 and look just normal in the eyes of our groups of friends) is one of the problems among young people today.

          When we claim that we are not thin, we are either truthfully admitting that we are plump, exaggerating the problem or comparing ourselves with the toothpicks. If taking the initiative to keep fit sounds torturing our souls, we can choose to be friends with people who are plumper than us, with the aim of taking a lot of photos with them and analyzing our real body size by rationally comparing the subjects in the photos.

v)                  Photographing skills dissatisfaction

          Matter-of-factly, taking photos is one of the favorite activities of young people today. Sometimes, when requested to take photos of our friends, we are blamed and complained for not producing a gorgeous piece of photo for them. This happens because for amateurs, taking photos means simply fitting every targeted object into the frame, then click or press the button. For others, taking photos means clicking or pressing the button after taking into consideration the suitable brightness, perfect angle that beautifies the subject, and the occupancy percentage of the subject as compared to the background.  

          If we are unfortunate enough to have friends belonging to the group other than the amateurs, to avoid being complained about our photographing skills, we should digest more photography magazines.

vi)                Photos superabundance

          Along with the passion in taking photos, most young people are facing the problem of having colossal amount of photos in the laptop, tablet computer, smartphone, camera, thumb drive, blog, Facebook, and the like. We say that albums are the storehouse of our sweet memories. Problem arises if we have difficulty in seeking for the memory we want at any moment, due to the large number of photos we keep in different means.

          Once in a while, we should delete unwanted photos and organize them so that we could get them easily whenever we want them.

vii)              Singing skills dissatisfaction

          Karaoke serves as an ideal place for groups of young people to gather and talk about anything and release their tension through singing. Nevertheless, having a not so pleasant voice in singing is quite embarrassing in the karaoke box. Most of us are not aware of how our voice sounds like in others’ ears. Thus, there are people who sing aloud in the karaoke box; not knowing of his or her injurious voice is maltreating others. It becomes a problem when someone directly criticizes the person singing and hurts his or her self-esteem.    

          If we are unsure of the quality of our voice, we should go singing in the karaoke. If it happens that our voice is that lousy, there is nothing for us to worry, the group of friends will automatically weep us out in the next visit to the karaoke. Anyhow, this is not an issue if we do not mind how others judge our voice. However, if we are so conscious about this problem, we can either blame the God for not granting us an angelic voice or take the initiative to sign up for a related course.

viii)                  Love expectation

          “Josephine is having a boyfriend. I also want a handsome boyfriend.” “I must get married before the age of 25!” Love is one of the favorite topics in the conversation of most young people. It becomes a problem only if the expectation of finding the right one is intensely exaggerated. Adolescents facing the issue extremely worry that they will be alone in perpetuity, and thus focusing too much on this particular matter whist neglecting other aspects in their life. 

          Watching less romantic dramas and novels could aid in reducing the excitation of love-related-hormones in the physical body, thus cutting down the uncontrollable intention to keep thinking about love.

ix)        Life realization

          Adolescence is the stage where we begin to question about the reason of our existence on earth. Whist questioning, we are in the process of accumulating information from everywhere to construct the person we would like to be in future. When this process is interrupted by the insecurity about the future and failure to answer the question, “who am I?”, confusion happens, causing young people to face depression or even suicide.

          To happily and maturely go through the process, we should gain an entire understanding of ourselves. Externally, we have to know our current heights and weights, blood group, family history and the like. Internally, we should have a clear idea of our personality, the one we hope to be in future, and the field we would like to devote our remaining time to. Reading self-help books aids in this process as well.

x)                  Sarcastic communication

          The author of this post is an adolescent. It is somehow obvious that a few of the sentences above seem sarcastic for some people and funny for the others. It applies to real life communications among young people as well. Majority of the adolescents are desperate for attention from the others. Engaging in sarcasm whist talking to people gives them a sense of superiority to the other communicator. When sarcasm is presented in a mild and not serious manner, it becomes joke. Young people expert in joking are seen as humorous and tame, unlike the detractors. Problem arises if young people are incapable of grasping the exact boundary between sarcasm and joke, thereby hurting the others. It is also a problem if adolescents adapt to the sarcastic manner of talking and speak casually in front of lecturers or the elders.  

           If we realize we are the one mentioned, spend a few minutes reflecting what we have said today when we are lying on our beds, preparing to fall asleep. It helps to speak appropriately if we manage to put ourselves in others’ shoes to speculate how we will feel if we are the receiver of those words. 

Is writing an arduous task?

           How many words have you written, from the time you began to learn writing to the moment you are reading this sentence? If this question sounds insane, there is no exact answer to it, try this one. How many pieces of essays have you composed so far? To make it simpler, is the pen possibly one of the common tools held by you in life? Matter-of-factly, writing and human are inseparable, both are linked and entwined. In fact, mankind is the sole creature gifted with the ability to write logically.  

          Since ancient times, writing was used as a means of communicating ideas and recording of information by our ancestors. As it developed, it became a channel for avid writers and sentimental poets to express their infectious attitudes and feelings. William Shakespeare, the unanimous greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist, devoted his life in writing, and he ingeniously won everyone’s glorification through his marvelously-written compositions. In addition, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien and J. K. Rowling similarly play with the words, magically enticing the readers to visit to their intriguing imaginations. Other than millions of the well-known authors, on earth, there are a lot of ardent writers or people who simply grow fond of writing. For instance, researchers who intensely wish to publish their journals, newspapers or magazines’ editors, bloggers and the like. For those people, is writing an arduous task?

        Obviously, the answer should be no, writing is pleasant and enjoyable for them. Nevertheless, imagine if William Shakespeare is demanded to write a lengthy essay about Newton’s law of universal gravitation, or John Ronald Reuel Tolkien and J. K. Rowling are requested to compose a book on how to fix electronic gadgets at home, will writing be a strenuous task for them now? Of course, with willing and colossal efforts to seek for related information, all of them are able to complete the errands. The focal point is that much more energy is required to be spent by them in those tasks as compared to writing in their original fields, and that makes writing a difficult assignment in their postulated situations. From here we are able to reach a consensus that writing is a bed of roses if one has the knowledge on what he intends to write. Often, when it comes to the time we must write, the hollowness of information about the topic burdens us, and the process of seeking for materials puts us into vexation. That makes sense for why numerous people are fond of writing diaries without taking it as a grueling task as with complete understanding or knowledge about themselves, they bypass the procedure of looking for associated information.

              It was passion that kept William Shakespeare and John Ronald Reuel Tolkien for producing a great deal of masterpieces in their entire lives. With passion in writing, J. K. Rowling is composing her new novel, "The Casual Vacancy", after the consummation of her stunning Harry Potter series. Also, enthusiastically, millions of the editors, poets, writers and authors are working on their writings day by day. The zeal for writing is not inborn, one has to ignite it. Having interest in the topic one wants to write kindles the so-called enthusiasm in writing. That explains why asking a student to write a love letter to someone he secretly adores is much uncomplicated than instructing him to write an academic essay, as thousands of words are probably insufficient for him to express his mighty and profound affection for her in his love letter,  but he simply has no passion in completing his laborious assignments.

              Summing up, both knowledge and passion are directly proportional to the easiness of writing. In a sense, the greater the knowledge one has about a topic, the lesser effort required by him to seek for related information and the easier the particular writing task will be. Similarly, the more zealous the person is on writing about a certain topic, the easier he finds writing about that topic. In conclusion, both knowledge and passion determine whether or not writing is an arduous task.  

Cohabitation: Women's Gains and Losses

"We love each other, we stay together?"

               

                “Yes, I do” is probably one of the crucial sentences that either leads women to the road of happiness or sinks them into the quagmire of despair for the rest of their lives.  In other words, there could be hardly a turning point in marriage. Hence, before owning a marriage certificate officially, more and more couples nowadays decide to test their marital capabilities through premarital cohabitation. The fact is that living together before marriage is not a bed of roses. Both genders sacrifice lots of things in order to certainly gain benefits from it.  Specifically, there are advantages and disadvantages of cohabitation that women should attempt to foresee before they agree to it.

                Research shows that majority of men do not care about the details of everything (Gray, 2008). On the flip side, most of the women are punctilious and willing to pay attention to trifle matters that concern them (Gray, 2008). Undoubtedly, the instinctive slovenliness of men brings up the displeasuring habits in them and the habits mentioned are often unpalatable in the eyes of women. For instance, most of the men have the tendency to accidentally fill the lavatory with the smell of ammonia, especially when they just wake up (Tolley, 2009). In the bedroom, there will be socks under the bed, and underpants in every corner (Blake, n. d.).  Furthermore, when men are in the house, toothpaste caps occasionally will go missing or are left open at any time. The habits seem nothing for unceremonious men, but not for attentive women. The thought of repenting to have got married with such a man will surely flash through a woman’s mind if she comprehends him only after they are married. Strictly speaking, premarital cohabitation prevents marriage shock. Apart from getting to know the foibles of men, living together before signing the marriage consent aids women to grasp and understand their future life partners entirely. Then, cautious and rational women are able to make decision on whether will it be worthy to spend their remaining lives with the men.

.               Ironically, studies show that when cohabitating couples eventually separate, women tend to get more hurt than men (Gray, 2008). In addition, studies have consistently shown that cohabitation is accountable for poorer marriages and higher rates of divorce. It is said that 70 percent of women who live with a partner and then marry that partner, will later divorce that partner (World Watch Today, 2011).  One of the plausible reasons for such phenomenon is that women are more likely to view cohabitation as a step toward marriage, while men are more likely to see it as a way to test a relationship or postpone the commitment (Jay, 2012). The expectation of marriage as a step after cohabitation held by women is higher than men. When it goes wrong, most of the time, women are the ones who feel the pain. As the Chinese proverb runs, “the more you expect, the more disappointed you will feel”. On the other hand, research finds out that a woman who lives with a man outside of marriage is 3 times more likely to suffer violence at the hands of her partner than a woman who is married (World Watch Today, 2011). In short, other than enduring the emotional distress when cohabitation fails at last, unmarried women bear the higher risk of getting violent actions from their cohabitating partners than married women.

                As a conclusion, whether or not cohabitation benefits or harms women is an on-going debate. Surely, women gain certain advantages from cohabitating. At the same time, women loss something when they engage in premarital cohabitation as well. Furthermore, the impacts of cohabitation are dissimilar for all women. The focal point is that, women must weight both gains and losses of cohabitation in their respective situations before making the verdict of involving in cohabitation.

The Road Taken

Date: Mon, 1 Jan 2013 00:00:01 +0800
From: qaphsiel28@hotmail.com
Subject: Open Immediately
To: qaphsiel28@hotmail.com

Good day,

            How did you feel when you saw the latest unread email in your inbox was in fact from your own email address? Assuredly, you will still be using this email address when you are fifty-five years old.

            This email is written by you in the year 2048. Truly, I am your future self. You are an extraordinary thinker. Thus, I assume no long-winded evidences are needed for you to verify my identity. For your benefits, you should believe me.

            I am now sitting in my office, typing to you after reading an extremely crucial email. I have spent your future thirty years of our life to create the “Retro-Email System”. The system enables email to travel through space and time, reaching to people in your era. For your information, day after tomorrow will be the press conference of announcing the stunning system to the public.

            You must be bemused. You might think it must be a joke for a current Psychology mediocre student to invent that kind of world-shocking system in future. How will that happen? I am not so sure. However, I remember at some point of our life, sometime between you and me, you will get a surprise attack from a vast motivation from nowhere. Then, you will get bored in investigating human and exert all your energy in inventing something that drastically impacts the world . “Retro-Email System” will be the product of your thirty years of energy.

            Back to the tremendously significant email I mentioned just now. It was from our future self. He is the one in the year 2058. In a very solemn manner, he stated that people in his era are changing their histories. They regretted doing things that they have done. Hence, they sent emails to the early of themselves, trying to alter their life histories. Their acts had disturbed the laws of nature. Gradually, the world will be turned into a mess. So, he sent the email to me, begging me remorsefully not to publish the system on the day after tomorrow.

             I am in an awfully painful dilemma. As I have revealed moments ago, I used up thirty wonderful years to invent the system. I am fifty-five now. If the system is not declared, my remaining life will be thrown into darkness. Repentance will accompany me until the day I am buried under the ground .

            Imploring you is the solely method I can think of to untie the mishap. Through your redoing, I am actually undoing what I have done. The unknown motivation will probably hit you in your next few years. You should be prepared and disperse it. Much of the time, I doubt if I have chosen the wrong path. Now, I truly confirm that I chose the wrong road. Please, keep putting your foot in front of the other and walk the road towards becoming a psychologist. I am unsure if it will be brilliant, but the life I am having now should be the most horrible one. Helping others is always our lifetime wish. You should never fail to stick to it. Change your history and varnish me. The world will be nicer if you concentrate on the road you are taking now.

            At the moment, as the system is still imperfect, I will not be able to receive your email. No reply is needed. I will explain more about it to you soon.

Best regards,

Lai

(: 2013 Resolutions :)

In the year of 2013, I SHOULD .....



i)   read at least 30 books or journals related to psychology.

ii)  score not less than CGPA 3.7 in every semester.

iii)  meet 30 new people (online or offline).

iv)  get 3 more best friends.

v)   exercise for 30 minutes each day for 300 days this year.

vi)   go to 13 new places.

vii)  have not less than 3 vacations with family members.

viii)  praise others sincerely every day.

ix)   be more active in charity events.

x)    comply all the aforementioned 9 resolutions!



* The list is not prioritized. Try to carry out each of it whole-heartedly but remain stressless if you're here looking at this sentence, realizing that you have not fulfilled one or some of them at the end of the year 2013 (or longer). It's not a MUST, but a SHOULD after all. Otherwise, congratulations if you have completed every of them! I am so proud of ourselves :)