public+speaking

Hebrew Academy of Montreal __Here are the speeches that our grade presented and prepared for public speaking__

What //was// the Lorax? And why was it there? And why was it lifted and taken somewhere. From the far end of town where the Grickle-grass grows? The old Once-ler still lives here. Ask him. //He// knows. "Look, Lorax," I said."There's no cause for alarm. I chopped just one tree. I am doing no harm. I'm being quite useful. This thing is a Thneed. A Thneed's a Fine-Something-That-All-People-Need! It's a shirt. It's a sock. It's a glove, It's a hat. But it has //other// uses. Yes, far beyond that. You can use it for carpets. For pillows! For sheets! Or curtains! Or covers for bicycle seats!" In the book the Lorax, Dr. Seuss understood, perhaps far better than most people understand today that if we don’t care for our environment, the trees, the rivers, and the fish, we will lose our ability to live in harmony and in health with it. The lorax is our voice of conscience and the voice of our political leaders and active and caring society members who lose sleep over what they worry will happen to our world. We have two choices and only two. We can destroy the environment, use it for everything its worth, take complete and ultimate advantage of it until there is nothing left to want or to have. We will have no food to eat, no way to stay alive, and all the money in the world will not bring back the rivers, the trees, the fish, and the soil. As says, ‘‘only when the last tree has died, the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize that we cannot eat money.’’ Or we can begin to put limits to our needs. Great wealth and much consumerism have taken over. There is more to buy than what we can ever use in our lifetime. In the Story of Stuff.com, a woman named Annie Leonard spends approximately one year exploring the consumerism in our society and how we have lost all perspective of what we buy versus what we need. 90 percent of what we buy we no longer use within the following 6 months. The food that we eat, our sustenance comes from the rivers, the fish, the ground and the trees. Just as we care for our bodies and realize how precious they are and how much care we have to give them so must we care for our environment. "SO...Catch!" calls the Once-ler.He lets something fall. "It's a Truffula Seed. It's the last one of all! You're in charge of the last of the Truffula Seeds. And Truffula Trees are what everyone needs. Plant a new Truffula.Treat it with care. Give it clean water. And feed it fresh air.  Grow a forest. Protect it from axes that hack. Then the Lorax and all of his friends may come back." In the Lorax, there is still hope. There is one seed left that can be planted to rebuild the forest. Is there still hope for us? By: Nicole

__English Public Speaking__ Only when the last tree has died, the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught we will realize we cannot eat money. People take nature for granted. They think that it was given to them for the sole purpose of making money. People don’t realize that nature is what we live on It’s what g-d has given us to enjoy. Companies have always had the tendency to take advantage of nature’s resources and use it for themselves. We have an abundance of nature, we have water, greenery, wildlife anything that you can possibly imagine in this world. Many people and companies do not realize what they are doing to this precious world of ours. Big companies are using these resources for their own benefit meaning money. I mean how else they would get what they need to survive as a company. But they are wrong. They can do something to help and so could all of us. We don’t know how easy it is to do something that will help make this a better place for all of us. I will prove to you that companies are making money their first priority although there are some positive examples also. As for the quote people won’t realize anything is wrong until we have nothing left but money. We cannot eat money meaning there is no more nature to live on, no more agriculture. In the end how important is money compared to environment. Really close to nothing. Our job is to make people realize what they are doing wrong. They are ruining our world, our trees, our rivers and our wildlife. There are forest companies that are overcutting and not replacing what they are cutting. However some companies are changing in that industry. For example in the forest industry they have started to improve. For every tree they cut down they plant new ones. They realize that their own future depends on the replanting as a company. In the fishing industry they are doing way too much overfishing. More and more fish species are going extinct. Our oceans are a very important resource for our needs. The companies are ruining our oceans and rivers with their waste. They are not thinking of the long-term consequences and the effect it’s going to have on the environment. Once the rivers are polluted it’s killing our fish and food supply. Why are they doing this? Because it's cheaper to dump the waste and the chemicals in the river and lakes than it is to properly dispose of it. So they can make more money once again. The oil sands project In Alberta is a great example of how the big oil companies are stripping the land of all foliage and rivers; to extract oil from the ground. There are not using their huge profits to clean up the consequences of their polluting. Things are changing and it is starting to catch on and it is very important for it to catch on to under developed countries as well like Africa, India and china. Babies are dying in china because of poisoned milk. Also china is using lead paint for the toys manufactured there which is a huge hazard to children all around the world. These countries have to start changing their policies. Most people forget where their products are coming from. Most people go to the supermarket and don’t think that What they are buying is from nature. Our Drugs come from nature, our food, the wheat we use to make bread, our fruits and vegetables. So many things are extracted by nature. Our whole life depends on it. Rainfall has to irrigate the land to make the crop grow. We can’t have acid rain falling on the crops. The world’s population is always increasing and these are the Limited resources we have. Those resources have to be taken care of very carefully. Companies have to become more environmental for us to survive, or else our whole existence will be threatened. The environment is starting to improve but we have to keep working on it and convince the world to do the same. Every country has to get environmentally conscious not only the developed countries. We have to wake up earlier than later because we cannot reverse our actions. Now is the time. it might be too late in the future. The money in the world won’t help feed the world’s population in the end it’s going to be the clean environment that is going to save the world. This proverb comes from the Crees who are aboriginals. I think that they realize what is happening because we keep building on their land and giving them money to replace that. They are people who are very attached to nature and to the world. They are an example for us to look at and change our ways about how we think about our world. By: Amanda

 When I was younger, around 6 or 7 years old, my great grandfather would always tell me stories of how he knew the great, Mahatma Gandhi. He would always tell me that Gandhi was the probably the wisest, smartest and most compassionate person he’s ever met. He would tell me how Mahatma Gandhi was a man of few words and yet that every word he spoke had such meaning and importance. Unfortunately, my great grand father never did know Mahatma Gandhi, he thinks he met him but he never did. My great grandfather had a severe case of Alzheimer’s and was constantly making up stories, which he genuinely thought were true.  As a kid, I always thought that he actually met Gandhi but when I got older my mother explained to me that unfortunately it wasn’t true and that my great grandfather was suffering from Alzheimer’s. Some days, when I look back and think of all the memories I spent with my great grandfather, I wish that Mahatma Gandhi did have the honor of meeting my great grandfather, because he had so much awe and respect and so many kind things to say about a man that never even met. Now that im older, I don’t even care if these stories are fiction or non-fiction, these stories played a big role in the way I was raised. Each story taught me a valuable lesson and taught me morals and these life lessons are things that I’ll cherish forever. Now, after the death of my great grandfather all I am left with is memories and the morals that he had installed in me during my youth. Sure, maybe I can’t remember each and every one of them, and I’m sure that as time goes by and I get older, I too may forget them. But there is one moral that I’ll always remember; a quote that my dearest great grandfather never forgot either by the great Mahatma Gandhi “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”. The first time I read this quote it sounded a little odd, why would Gandhi compare a nation’s morals to the way they treat their animals? But then I started to think and after thinking about it for sometime it really sunk in. Now when I reflect about this quote, it makes perfect sense. You can definitely judge a nation’s morals by the way it treats its animals. Animals are living breathing creatures, just like us. They may not speak our language, but the world is a big place and there are many people in the world that you aren’t able to communicate with due to language barriers. Nowadays, we hear a lot of stories about how women and even some men those are in physically abusive relationships. There are many stories out there that can just break your heart listening too. But did you ever think of animal cruelty. As an Animals Rights Activist, I am horrified when I hear stories of animal cruelty or when I see very graphic photos of animals being tortured to death, I just cannot comprehend why are people doing this to another living being? Don’t get me wrong, I am not a vegetarian nor am I a vegan. There is nothing wrong with using animals for human purposes such as food and research, but it should be done in a humane way that reduces unnecessary suffering, not in a torturous way.  How would you feel if someone locked you in a small cage that’s way too tight and decided not to give you water or food for 3 days or drowned you to death for no apparent reason? Animal abuse is a horrible crime that touches us all both as a society and as individuals. Here’s something that you may not be aware of, many serial killers begin their life of violence by abusing animals. If we want to see an end to violence in the society that we live in today, we must start by teaching our children to respect all form of life.  And that’s exactly that Gandhi believed in. He believed in love and concern for all life, and was completely against violence. Gandhi wanted peace and happiness, and to make the world into the best place that it can possible be.  So in that respect, I believe that yes you can judge the moral progress of a nation based on the way they treat their animals! Animals are living beings too and were placed on this world for a specific reason just like us. Therefore you can judge a nation on its moral progress based on the way it treats its animals because the way they treat they’re animals is probably the same way they treat one another. Even though my great-grandfather never actually met Mahatma Gandhi, he was so passionate about what Gandhi stood for and believed in. It was because of him that I am an animal rights activist and stand up for all the animals everywhere who doesn’t have a voice, and it is thanks to him that I am able to do my share in helping the world realize how wrong it is to abuse our fellow creatures. Because of my great-grandfather, I was able to learn about the great, peaceful man and amazing role model that Gandhi was and continue his legacy of helping animals. By: Annie