Ernest Hemingway Essays (4028 words) - Reading,

Ernest Hemingway "Today on the five o'clock news a man goes on a rampage at the office leaving five dead." As I flip on the TV, I see another top story! A man has killed others at his workplace and taken his own life. This is becoming very old. I begin to think, "what could push this person to the point where they feel that it is necessary to take the lives of innocent people?" Even more disturbing, what could drive a person to the point that they believe it is necessary to end their own life? What could drive a person to the point of no longer having the desire to live? I believe that being prepared for life and the difficulties that come along with it is part of the key. The world can be a very difficult place, especially once out of high school. It is the high school's job to prepare us, as students, for the harshness of the real world. Expectations are high for every single person in today's world and some people just can not live up to the expectations of other people. Trying to live up to other people's expectations creates competition. Competition is in everything from getting into college to finding a job. I believe that is why some of the most basic skills learned in high school are so valuable. The most basic and important skills are used in school everyday: reading, writing, listening and speaking. These are some of the most important skills needed to a get a good job, a good education and essentially a happy and pleasing life. Reading is extremely important when it comes to surviving in the real world today. Being able to read opens up a variety of doors in life and opportunities. If you can't read, imagine what type of job you will be qualified for. Let's see, a minimum wage job at McDonalds! Wait, even to be able to work at McDonalds you have to be able to read. What about reading the cash register or the orders off of the computer? Even a minimum wage job making burgers requires the skill to read. My reading skills were shown and improved upon in my English, Spanish, Math, Keyboarding I and Football classes. One class that might question how I learned or improved upon my reading skills is in my Football class. For football class, we read different lifting magazines and pamphlets, that teach new strategies to get a better lift. If we do not know how to read it, it is difficult to fully understand the article, and therefore the proper and safe lifting technique. In my portfolio I have placed a picture of me lifting. At the beginning of the semester I would not have been able to even come close to the weight I am lifting in the picture. This shows just how important reading has been in my advanced football. So in my football class I believe I showed enough skill in reading that I can qualify for a $5.75 an hour job flipping burgers. So far so good. The second class in which I believe the skill of reading is important and becomes improved is math. When I am about sick of math class and we still have 15 minutes to go, I come to a very complicated word problem. My mind is not completely in it. That is when reading comprehension comes into play, so I can properly complete the problem and accomplish everything that was asked for. If not for my skill of reading comprehension, I might not be able to figure out each and every word problem. The math lab that I placed in my portfolio would not have been possible if it were not for my skill of reading. If I did not know what the book was asking of me, I would not have been able to complete the lab. The lab asked me to graph and solve the equations using the techniques we read earlier in the chapter, this is where reading comes into play. Now I am not only able to read, but I am also able to comprehend. I have also learned the technique of re-reading. If I do not understand something the first time through, I have to take the time to re-read the problem. This qualifies me to the next step up in the career field, now I can go from flipping burgers, to another $5.75 an hour job working behind the