Saturday, October 30, 2010

Diamond necklace


The story written Guy de Maupassant tells you about a life of middle class woman who lived in France. Mathilde is a beautiful woman who lives an ordinary life with a maid and her husband who works as a clerk. They live a normal life not so rich or  poor. But Mathilde is not satisfied. She longs for more wealth, lovely dresses and attractiveness. One day her husband comes home with an invitation from the Minister of Education. He expects Mathilde to be pleased because the high society of the town is most likely to be present. Mathilde is not happy because she feels that none of her dresses fits for such an occasion. Her husband had planned to buy a gun for his weekend hunting but he offers to spend their saved money on a new dress. The date of the invitation comes closer but even with the new dress at hand Mathilde is not satisfied. She has no jewelry and refuses to go to the banquet. Her husband suggests she should visit her old school friend whom Mathilde had not visited for a while because of jealousy. Madam Forestier was delighted by the visit and offered to lend Mathilde the necklace she likes best and after some hesitation she picks the most expensive looking diamond necklace. The awaited evening comes and Mathilde is delighted. She feels admired and enjoys every moment of her appearance. At the end of the party she and her husband leave to catch one of the night carriages. At home, taking a last look at her beauty in the mirror, Mathilde finds out that the borrowed necklace has disappeared. Mr. Loisel walks back to all the places they had been that night but cannot find it. The next day they try to take some time, telling Madame Forestier that they had brought the necklace to a jeweler to get the clasp fixed, but this lie does not help either. Not even the jeweler who had made the necklace was found. Finally the Loisels decide to buy a replacement. They got together all their saved money and borrowed from everybody they know. Madame Forestier gets the new necklace and does not realize that it is a replacement. In order to be able to pay all the loans back Mathilde has to fire the maid and do all house chores by herself. They live through ten years of poverty in a small house. After these long years of poorness Mathilde meets Madame Forestier in the street and decides to tell her the truth about the necklace and how she had to suffer. At first Madam Forestier does not even recognize Mathilde whose beauty has gone. She was surprised and feels pity for her after she heard the story and tells her that it wasn’t diamond but just a replica which costs five hundred francs.           
            This story tells you about that greed is bad and lying too. If Mathilde told Madam Forestier about the lost necklace she would have told them that it was a cheap copy. They wouldn’t have to suffer for ten years.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Changes


If I had the opportunity to change one thing about my hometown it would be the air pollution. Air pollution is a major problem for the people of Ulaanbaatar. As winter comes closer the problem comes nearer. The biggest problem is the “ger” slum area. They think that electric heaters are expensive and that the electricity bill will rise to the sky for using the electric heaters. So they fire coal to heat their homes, to survive the freezing winters of Mongolia. Some families can’t even afford to buy coal that they fire car used tires. They say that car tire burns longer and gives heat better than coal. So we inhale all this rubbish in winters.
If you ask me the reason why “ger” area was created  I can tell you this. The people from the countryside come to the capital because they think that they can live better in the capital. But they come to the city and can’t do anything because they don’t have the necessary qualifications for the jobs. And so people from the countryside become nothing. And when government says that they are living without a permission to own a land or that they don’t have the necessary documents they say that we are Mongolian people we have rights to live here. So because of the rudeness and disrespectfulness of these people government can’t change anything. Now the government wants to buy these places and build buildings that they can use. And by building these apartments air pollution will be degreased.
So if I had the opportunity to change one thing about my hometown it would be the air pollution.