summary of " the bet"

"The Bet" is an 1889 short story by Anton Chekhov about a banker and a young lawyer who make a bet with each other about whether the death penalty is better or worse than life in prison. The story has a twist ending.

As the story opens, the banker is recalling the occasion of the bet fifteen years before. Guests at a party that he was hosting that day fell into a discussion of capital punishment; the banker argued that capital punishment is more humane than life imprisonment, while the young lawyer disagreed, insisting that he would choose life in prison rather than death the bet was on and the lawyer cast himself into isolation for fifteen years.

They agree to a bet of two million rubles that the lawyer cannot spend fifteen years in solitary confinement.

The man spends his time in confinement reading books, writing, playing piano, and studying, and educating himself. In the meantime, the banker's fortune declines and he realizes that if he loses, paying off the bet will leave him bankrupt. The day before the fifteen-year period concludes, the banker resolves to kill the lawyer so as to not owe him the money. However, the banker finds a note written by the lawyer. The note declares that in his time in confinement he has learned to despise material goods for the fleeting things they are. Therefore, to demonstrate his contempt, he intends to leave confinement five hours prior to when the bet would be up, thus losing the bet and unwittingly saving his own life.

summary of "once upon a time"

Once upon a time, there was a rich family; a husband and his wife and their little boy, housemaid, a gardener, two pets; a dog and a cat, they where all living in a very big elegant house surrounded by a huge fence and a very high wall to protect the house from burglars and thieves who often come at night and break into the houses and steal valuable items. The husband did all his best to protect his house from being stolen by all possible means like burglar alarms that were found in every door in the house and electronic  gates and signs hung above silhouettes at the entrance of the gate.

He also provided his house with a razor-bladed tunnel in which there where choppers of the security coil with saws, wire cutters to provide the house with enough protection against any intruder one day their little boy was playing in the garden acting the roll of a prince to help Sleeping Beauty; a story which his mother had related to him the night before so in order to be the prince who wants to save Sleeping Beauty's life, he entered the tunnel and was almost torn into pieces by all the sharp mechanical equipment that were at the  tunnel and the family had lost  their only child by their over protection procedures.

summary of 'THE NECKLACE'

'The Necklace' is a short story written by the famous French writer Guy de Maupassant. It is originally written in French but it has been translated into English. It tells the story of a poor girl whose name was Mathilde and she came from a poor family who has suffered much in life she had hopes and ambitions and great. Expectations to be a woman of an important social class but her dreams proved to be futile as she had married a clerk in the ministry of Education. She lived in a rather poor house with her husband who was working very hard to provide his wife with a respectful decent life social life.

However, his wife had never been satisfied with her married life; she has wanted very much to marry a rich man of a good social class and of distinction, someone who could fulfill her dream and ambitions who would raise her above her level and make her a woman of social prestige and social power. Though she was rather poor and struggling hard to survive, she was graceful, charming and beautiful; she was greatly admired by any one wherever she went.

One day, her husband received an invitation from the minister of Education inviting him and his wife to a party at his palace. M. Loisel was very happy to receive such an invitation and he gladly informed his wife about the party but his wife received the news with sadness and grief as she had nothing special to wear for this occasion.

 Her husband suggested that she could wear her beautiful dress which she always did on previous occasions. She did not agree and said that it was ugly dress he told her that he could give her an amount of money which he had saved for himself to buy a gun for lark shooting. He was ready to sacrifice the sum of money that he had saved to please his wife.

She was very happy and she bought a beautiful classy dress that looked very chic on her. But she felt that there was something missing for that beautiful dress it needed some jewels to make it look more glamorous. Knowing that jewels were too expensive for them to buy, he proposed that she should pay a visit to her friend Mme Forestier and ask her to borrow some of her jewels. She went to her friend who did not mind to lend her some jewels to wear in the party; she showed her a box of jewels to choose the pieces that she wants to wear.

After spending few minutes the suitable jewels for her dress, Mme Loisel finally decided on a diamond necklace which she felt that it was perfect choice. Mme Forestier gladly accepted to lend her the diamond necklace; Mme Loisel was very happy and excited about the party having the dress and the suitable necklace for it now. She and her husband went to the party and she had greatly enjoyed her time there; laughing, dancing, drinking and eating, and feeling like the queen of the party. Everybody noticed how beautiful and graceful she was.

They left the party at four am in the morning feeling happy but tired. When she reached home, she took off her dress and to her great shock she discovered that the necklace was not around her neck. She screamed out loudly and she informed her husband who almost passed out from the shock and they started looking for the necklace everywhere but they could not find it. They had finally made up their mind to buy another one for Mme Forestier.

They found in one of the distinguished jewelry shops a very similar necklace to the one they had lost. It was greatly expensive and her husband had to borrow a great amount of money from his friends to buy that necklace so as to give it back to Mme Forestier who was waiting for her old necklace not knowing that Mathilde Loisel had lost her necklace and that she was buying a new one for her.

They bought the new necklace which she had given it to Mme Forestier and they had spent ten years of hard labor and much suffering to pay off their debts to their friends. Mme Loisel had greatly changed in those ten years of suffering and hard work. One day, she accidently came across Mme Forestier who failed to recognize Mathilde. Mathilde informed her that they had bought her a new genuine diamond necklace for her old one which she had lost in the party.

 Mme Forestier was greatly shocked and felt too sympathetic towards Mathilde and sadly told her that the lost necklace was not genuine diamond but it was imitation!!!

TIME MANAGEMENT

Time management is the act or process of planning and exercising conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency or productivity. A time management system is a designed combination of processes, tools, techniques, and methods. Usually time management is a necessity in any project development as it determines the project completion time and scope.

There are many related concepts regarding time management. For instance, project management   which is commonly known as project planning and project scheduling. Time management is essential in project management. There is also what could be called attention management which is more or less related to recognizable resources meaning human resources to conduct some activities.

Moreover, there is personal time management which is related to setting personal goals. These goals are recorded and set as a project or a plan. In this plan, there are individual tasks, deadlines, and priorities as well as schedule activities. Time management is also about tasks that do not provide individual or organization value.

There are certain steps that should be taken to accomplish tasks within the right time management. These steps are as follows:

1. Set goals

Set goals, both at work and at home, to determine exactly what it is that you want to achieve. You will use these goals later to help priorities and decide what tasks and activities you should work on, and in which order.

2. Plan

One of the most important steps to improving both personal and professional time management is planning.

When planning your schedule, be realistic: what can you really achieve with each time slot during your day? Be sure not to over-commit yourself to others, which will cause unnecessary stress. There is a limit to what you can get done each day. Use your goals and priorities to ensure you have enough time for the things you absolutely must accomplish during each week.

Don’t forget to leave time each day to handle the unexpected. Things come up, and your schedule must be flexible enough to handle changes without causing additional stress.

3. Priorities

Write your goals on a list you can keep close at hand during the day, at least until you grow accustomed to your new system. Assign incoming tasks according to a priority system: 1, 2, 3 or A, B, C, or even a colour system. Use whichever you prefer, and add as many levels of importance as you think you need, without overcomplicating the system. Unnecessary complication can add to stress.

When preparing your weekly schedule, make sure the tasks you work on during the day are the ones with the highest priority. Fill in time blocks to complete these tasks first, then move to your second priority. If you still have time (keeping in mind to leave contingency space for the unexpected), then move on to your third category. If not, see if you can delegate the task to someone else. If not, avoid committing to the task.

Remember: each time you are given a new assignment, analyse it for importance and prioritize it accordingly.

If you have an existing task or to do list for this week, prioritize it now.  

4. Set deadlines

Now that you’ve got your goals, priorities, and schedule clear, review your deadlines. Chances are, you’ve already been given deadlines for most of your tasks. If not, make your own, taking into consideration your priority criteria. If you let tasks float around without being formally added to your schedule, odds are you’ll procrastinate on them and they won’t get done until you’re asked about them…and by that time, you’ll most likely be expected to deliver ASAP, causing unnecessary stress.

5. Plan for mini-breaks

You know you’re not a robot, so don’t act like you are. Everyone has natural highs and lows in energy levels, as you’ve already noted in your log. If you plod through your tasks without a single break, odd are you’ll burn out even faster, and it will take you longer to complete each task. Just a five minute break can be effective. Be sure to get up from your desk or work area once each hour (set an alarm if you need to remind yourself and don’t find it distracting, or plan to take a mini-break between task types), get a glass of water, and stretch a bit before returning to your work area. Something as simple as drinking a glass of water will rehydrate you and can give you an extra energy boost. This can make a huge difference in fully taking advantage of time by keeping energy levels at their max and reducing stress.

6. Avoid sleepiness

Be sure to get enough sleep each night. Different people require different amounts of sleep. If you’re unsure how much you need, keep a sleep log and track how much you slept each night during the week and what your energy levels and productivity were like the next day at work. Sleepiness can lead to unproductive work days and distraction, causing stress as you realise how little work is getting done.

If you’re still feeling tired at work, go outside for a walk as part of one of your mini-breaks. This will help you get some fresh air and move around, which may help increase your energy levels and productivity.

7. Watch what you eat and drink

When you don’t drink enough water throughout the day, you quickly become dehydrated, and you may not be able to think clearly and focus on your work. There are a couple of ways to stay hydrated: either keep a large water bottle on your desk, and drink it regularly throughout the day, or integrate water drinking into your hourly mini-break.

What you eat may also influence how tired you feel throughout the day. Avoid heavy lunches, and be sure to bring snacks for mid-morning and afternoon. In the same way that dehydration can lead to drowsiness, so can hunger. A small snack of fruit and nuts can bring your energy level up in a way that won’t leave you crashing later, as sugar or caffeine can.

Does all of that sound easy enough? It’s a step by step process, so it’s easy to make huge changes in time management one step at a time. Let me know if you try this system, and how it works for you. Also be sure to comment if you have any additional tips.

summary of The tell-tale heart

Edgar Allan Poe Is a famous 19^{th century} American short story writer, poet, and playwright. The tell-tale heart tells the story of a young man who was sharing a room with an old man whom he had never liked in his life not because of a particular reason but because the old man's eye was like the eye of a vulture that used to scare him whenever he looked at him. Deep down inside him, he love the old man and he respected him but he made up his mind that he had to get rid of the man because of his Evil Eye that used to horrify him all the time.

He decided to kill the man  and so he made a plan that he was going to kill him in one of those night while he was sleeping and so he went on every night after midnight (for about four or five) to check the old man's room to make well arranged plan for his murder.

Few nights passed by and on the fifth night he decided to perform his murder. The man was sound asleep but he could hear well his heart beating so fast that made him furious and angry. He was so afraid of the sound of his heart beating that was getting louder and louder each time he came closer to kill him.

In order to protect himself from the fierce and the fear that overwhelm him whenever he approaches him, he dragged the body to the floor until he reached the middle of the room and then he took the bed and turned over to the man who was sound asleep and so he killed him instantly.

He checked his heart to make sure that he is dead but he found that there was no pulsation and so it was hundred percent clear that the man was 'stone dead' he decided to get read of the body by cutting the head, the arms, and the legs. He hid all these parts under the floor of the room and he cleaned the mess; there was no stain, no blood, and no marks left. It was 4 o'clock in the morning when he finished cleaning the signs of his crime.

Few moments later, the police were knocking the door as one of the neighbors had heard a scream at night coming from this house, so they have come to check that everything was okay. He let them in and showed them each part of the house and started acting normally to show them that everything was perfectly well. He even allowed them to enter the room of the old man he offered them chairs to sit and he sat with them on a chair which he brought to the middle of the room right under the body of the old man.

The police officers went on chatting casually on different topics; at first the man chatted with them normally but gradually he started to have a headache and to feel that there is a strong sound in his ear almost like a strong whistle the more the time passes by, the stronger and louder the sound becomes. The man gets more and more uncomfortable and not at ease. He starts to act strangely; going to and fro in the room, feeling restless and unhappy.

 The police officers start to suspect something mysterious with the man and the place where they were. The man started to hear the heart beating of the man that now became so loud and clear. He (all of a sudden) pulled back his chair and showed the police officers the different parts of the corpse of the old man where he had hidden in the spot under the chair that he was sitting on. He admitted the whole crime to the police as he could not stand hearing the sound of the heart beating of the dead old man.

summary of 'ONE OF THESE DAYS'

'One of these Days' is a short story written by the famous Colombian writer GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ. It tells the story of a famous dentist who was so much devoted to his work to the extent he wakes up early at 6 every morning to go to his dental clinic at to start his work. On one of these days while he was working in his clinic the Mayor of his county arrived early in the morning as he was suffering from so much pain in his lower wisdom tooth.

He asked to see the dentist but the dentist at first refused to meet him as he was busy working with some false teeth for one of his patients. The Mayor was so much in pain that he asked again to see the dentist, the dentist finally agreed to see him. The Mayor looked terrible; one side of his face was swollen and in pain and the other side looked natural. He managed to shave on side of his face, but the other side remained unshaven.

The man was suffering from a dreadful pain; he wanted very much to be relieved from his pain. The dentist inspected his tooth and he discovered that there was an abscess in his tooth which was the cause of all this pain. He told the Mayor that he would pull out his tooth but without anesthesia, the Mayor agreed because he wanted to get rid of the tooth that was causing him so much pain and making him look terrible.

During the surgical dental operation, the Mayor underwent so much torture and physical pain but he showed much courage and psychological power in enduring this operation. The dentist finally removed his lower wisdom tooth with success. He asked the dentist to send him later the bill; the dentist asked him if he would send it to his home or to the town, the Mayor replied that they are both the same thing.

The writer was more or less making fun of the social conditions of his society at that time. He wanted to show the reader that the money owned by his town coming from taxes or the income of the county's economies are in the pockets of the MAYOR.

Summary of 'TONE'

'Tone' is a short story written by a short story writer called 'YZ Chin' it speaks about a young girls whose name is sandy and she a deaf young girl, whose deafness was the result of a car crash. Sandy always hearing aids on her ears. Whenever she is introduced to any person by her friends, she shows her hearing aids as a sign of her inablilty to hear well.

One day she was invited to a party, where she was introduced to a young man whose name was Colin They became friends and both of them grew very much interested in one another. A strong love relationship grew between the two of them that lasted for a long time.

They share a lot of happy moments together, they went to different parties and social occasions and they enjoyed each other company a lot until one day Colin started to get bored of her deafness and he started to make fun of the fact that she always depends on reading people's lips and not finding any problem of going to concerts and enjoying loud music.

On his birthday, she booked two tickets for a concert party to which they went and had a great time. Being a fan of a famous writer, he invited her on her birthday to go and attend a signing party for her favorite writer Emily Barnes. She enjoyed very much seeing her well known writer and she returned home feeling quite satisfied.

One day, they had arranged to have dinner in a nice restaurant when he preferred going to a private show party movie to going out with her. Sandy felt too humiliated because he did not like to go out with her and he preferred seeing his friend's movie who was the director of the film. They decided to break up with each other and she felt that she did not regret it as he turned out to be a truly selfish person.

  

Summary of 'THE STAR'

'The Star' is a short story written by an American short story writer named Esther Claes. It tells the story of a famous American singer who has won many musical awards as well as the Grammys awards.

She wakes up one day and she finds that the whole world has turned upside down and that America is on the edge of being attacked by unknown country and she is on her way of being completely destroyed.

The star's parents try to draw her attention all through about the upcoming war and the fact that they might lose everything including their house, their money, water, electricity and even the natural resources of life.

The writer describes throughout the short story the unhealthy atmosphere of the house and the state of fear and terror of the parents who are afraid of what tomorrow would bring to them. The father feels that they would gradually lose water and electricity would soon go out which actually happened. Still 'The Star' has never been pessimistic regarding the future of her country. She believes in the fact that her country can never ever suffer from such a terrible state nor can her country suffer from the awful consequences of war.    

Therefore, the story ends with the optimistic perspective of 'The Star' towards tomorrow believing that tomorrow is going to be a better day for her country, herself, and her family despite the fact that her parents get very sick by the end of the story and the reader assumes that the father was dying. Nevertheless, 'The Star' has hope in the future.

summary of the first short story: 'THE CARD'

'The Card' is a short story written by the American short-story writer James Ross. It speaks about the feeling of a young boy who is born in a family that consists of his mum and dad and his sister Laura. On his tenth birthday, he received a birthday card from his father who disappeared later from the house and abandoned his own family.

The young boy's name was Mickey; he could barely remember his father, the only thing that he remembered was the birthday card which his father had given him and which he deeply cherished. He always kept reading the card from time to time trying to figure out something about his father's character from the lines which his father had written to him on his birthday card.

Occasionally, he kept asking his sister Laura and his mum about his father whom he really missed a lot. He went on asking them several times about how his father was like and how he looked like and why he had left them and deserted his own family without saying a word.

The reason for his father's disappearance is never known to the reader. The reader is left to guess for the cause of his disappearance. Mickey had always asked his mother too about his father but she had never given him a satisfactory answer to all of his questions and he had never received a convincing reply to all his inquiries about his father from any member of his family.

His mother had fallen for a drug addict with whom she had a complete a full relationship and whose presence in the house was always unwelcomed by both Laura and Mickey. This relationship had come to an end after the man was arrested by the police who had received a phone call from Mickey upon the discovery of a packet of cocaine hidden under the stairs of their house. Mickey was so much relieved after the man was arrested and he sincerely and deeply wished that his father would come back home.

My Poem: MUSIC

You are my soul-mate

You make me happy

You make me sad

You help me to relax

You help me to stay still.

You are the sound of silence

You are the light of darkness

You are my motive

You are my incentive.

You make me smile

You make me joyful

You make me look bright

You make me cheerful

You are the one I cannot live without.

The Two Characters: Hussein Salem and Ahmed Ezz

Egypt has passed through difficult times and many hardships. Egypt has been one of the rich countries all over the world but her people has never enjoyed this richness due to the fact that the official people who were in charge of protecting the country's interests made use of her richness and took the money that belong to the people to themselves. For that reason, after a long time of suffering and living in misery and poverty, the people revolted over their leader and required the money stolen to be back and to be put and used in the right place.

The revolution took place a year ago and after 18 days of unrest and bloodshed, the president finally stepped down leaving the regime and the political rule under the hands of the SCAF (Supreme Council of the Armed Forces). It turned out that those who were in charge of protecting the country's interests stole the money and put it in banks in Europe. Therefore, the SCAF and the people demanded the stolen money to be back to the government.

One of the important ex-personalities in the government was Hussein Salem who happened to occupy an important position in the government and because of his political position he misused his position and stole a great amount of money and put it in the banks of Spain and managed to run away with his family.

Ahmed Ezz is the other important character who abused his parliamentary membership and also stole a great amount of money and put them in one of the banks in Europe.

I believe that these two people should give the money back to the Egyptians because this money belongs to Egypt and its people. Being imprisoned is not just enough for them even if they stay in prison for ever. I think they should give the money back and have a life-sentence because they deserve this punishment.    

My Personal Project

My personal project has been on a very unique subject which is about "Actual Life in Cemeteries in Egypt." It is a very important issue that has never been discussed before. I have chosen this topic because I felt that I wanted to shed some light on this subject. I have written a long essay in French about this topic. Egypt is the only country in the world in which we find poor people living in cemeteries.

Poverty is a great problem in Egypt. It has been so for many centuries. For hundreds and hundreds of years, Egypt has suffered from this problem. There are many poor people living in Egypt. A great number of them are homeless and penniless, they don't have a place to live in nor money to survive and so they take the cemeteries to be their only home and after settling down there, they go on begging in the streets asking money from those who come to pay a visit to their dead relatives and dear ones.

 I find this topic a very important one to tackle as it has never been tackled before by any student. I have gathered a lot of information and ideas about this topic, I even paid around five visits to our family's cemeteries and I met with the guards of the cemeteries who are living a normal life there. Each time I did a different interview with them, I asked them many questions about the way they lead their lives, how they earn money, how they are able to survive in such poor areas. Funny enough, each time I got different answers to my questions particularly those related to money.

A great number of them lied to me when I asked them about how they earn their money. Some of them pretended that they are trying to get money in an honorable way whereas I have been able to learn in an indirect way through some people that most of them win their money by selling dead bodies to the students of the faculty of medicine who study 'Anatomy' and their only way to get a dead body is through buying a dead body from one of the guards of the cemeteries. In this way, the guards earn a great amount of money. In Egypt, this kind of trade is regarded as an illegal and unmerciful action because it is actually a crime and a theft.

I was lucky enough to offer one of the guards a job to move away from the cemeteries and to take a job as a guard in a big house in a place far away from the cemeteries as one of my cousins needed to have a guard guarding his big house permanently. So I felt I needed to do some kind of favor to anyone of them and I was happy when he gladly accepted my offer and thanked me a lot for my help.    

I have learned and acquired many skills, information, and ideas from my project.  I have managed to learn about many things which I have never known before in my life. It was a remarkable and an unforgettable experience to me. 

The qualities of a good friend

A good friend is rare to find these days. I have many good friends; all of them are magnificent people. We all like each other and we help each other in time of need. We stand by each other when there are problems or troubles facing any one of us. The English proverb says:"A friend in need is a friend indeed." This proverb has many equivalents in almost all the languages all over the world. It is a very important proverb as it has proved to be true throughout all the centuries and among different generations. A good friend should have certain qualities that would distinguish him from any other person.

First of all, a good friend should be faithful and honest; he should be faithful to his friend, helping him when he is in trouble. He should be there for him when he needs him. Faithfulness is a very important quality for a good friend. Secondly, a good friend should be very respectful; he should respect his friend's wishes and desires. Furthermore, he should respect his friend's privacy, in other words, his private life as well as his interests.        

Thirdly, a good friend should be very decent and polite; he should not hurt his friend's feelings or pride. He should be very careful when talking to his friend in matters regarding personal opinions or judgments or even personal stuff related to one's own sentiments or dignity.

Moreover, a good friend should be helpful, always offering a helping hand to his friend when he needs his help whether it is by daytime or at midnight or at any time. Having a helpful friend is like finding water in the desert or we can even compare it to finding a rose in a desert.

Above all, a good friend should be a secret keeper; he should keep his friends secrets and personal matters. He should not reveal any of them. It is the obligation of friendship that requires him to be discreet and faithful.

To conclude, good friends are like precious stones, they are rare to find, and when we find them, we should know how to keep them and cherish them for they are invaluable.

The Constitution

The constitution is a set of fundamental principles according to which state or other organization is governed. This rule together make up or constitute what is the entity( reason of our excitants) is. The constitution plays an important role in any society it governs different levels of organization starting from sovereign states to companies and unincorporated association. No country can be ruled or governed without constitution. A constitution helps in organizing the social life as well as the legal life of any society. There are many rules and regulations which are stated in a constitution and are adhered to by the people of the country.

The term constitution comes through. French from Latin war constitution, use for regulation and orders. History shows that in the ancient civilization constitutions were their; in the Greek civilization there was the Greek constitution founded by great philosophers like Aristotle who made a formal distinction between ordinary law and constitution law, establishing ideas of constitutions and attempting to classify different form of constitutional government.

In the roman civilization there was the roman constitution; the roman first codified their constitution in 450 BC. They operated under a series of law that were added along different generation. But the Roman law was never reorganized into a single code until 438 AD.

Egypt nowadays the Egyptians are facing political crises not knowing what to do towards the issue of reforming their country politically and socially. In my opinion I believe it is better to have a new constitution first which it articles should be agreed upon and written by authorized judges, lawyers and the young people who are responsible for the revolution. If the constitution is the first established it will help in achieving the countries well fare and prosperity. That is to say it would be for the general good of the society rather than serving one's own interests.