There are many differences between “The Silence” and The Bet, although the overall story is quite similar. In “The Silence”, the man gets challenged to not say a word for an entire year versus in The Bet, the man gets challenged to fifteen years in solitude. In both they bet a lot of money, and get whatever they request. There are many similarities and differences between both stories.

In the short story, The Bet, a few men are arguing about which is worse, the death penalty, or solitary confinement. To try and figure it out, two of the men make a bet. One of them would stay in solitary confinement for fifteen years, and he would get whatever he asked for , and if he succeeded he would get two million dollars. If he didn’t, he would have to pay.

In the TV episode “The Silence”, a man gets annoyed with how much another man talks, so he makes a bet with him that he can’t stay quiet for a whole year straight.  If he succeeded he would get a lot of money. If he didn’t, he would have to pay.

In both stories, the man who has to pay doesn’t have enough money to pay his debt. Although there is a lot of differences, there is almost, if not more similarities, between “The Silence” and The Bet.

Mac, the monkey, and Toucan, the toucan, shared the ownership of the Fruit Forest, a forest where animals could come to collect their Fruit. This had recently happened, in fact the previous week, Mac’s mother, Charlotte, had been killed while getting their breakfast, setting Mac on a mission to not only find food, but also what had happened to his mother.

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Sleepily, Mac opened his eyes and looked around. Panicking, he looked down at the vine that he had tied himself to the tree with until he remembered the events of the previous day. He climbed down from the Jungle log he had slept and saw the fruit forest in front of him.

Mac felt his tummy rumble and thought that to calm the grumble in the pit of his stomach he should eat a piece of fruit. He looked directly above him and saw a perfect bunch of bananas hanging down. He ran forward and started to climb the banana tree. The monkey was half way up to the bananas when he heard a rustling behind him. He looked back then figured it was nothing and kept climbing.

All of a sudden he felt a pair of sharp talons on his tail. He heard the flapping got feathered wings behind him and he screamed. Now a monkey scream is about the worst thing you could ever hear, yet Mac’s attacker kept his grasp strong.

When he finally had the courage to turn around, he found himself face to face with an enormous colorful toucan twice the size of him. The toucan seized his chance and while Mac still had his jaw open in shock, it pulled its prey to the ground and started attacking Mac. Suddenly all there was was a blur of all sorts of colors as Mac started to fight back against the huge toucan.

For my current event this week, I decided to do an article called “Study’s 5-second rule results disputed“. This article is from the Newsla website and was published online on April  7th 2014. It is about how in some ways the five second rule is true and in some ways it has no affect at all. It is true that the faster you pick up your dropped food from the floor, the less bacteria it will come up with. But still, every second counts. The different surfaces that the food is dropped on also played a roll in the amount of bacteria that ends up on the  food before you end up eating it. They also found out that the

“study contradicts earlier research at Clemson University. Scientists at Clemson tested how fast a bacteria called Salmonella Typhimurium made its way from flooring surfaces to bologna and bread. It happened instantly, the researchers found.”

Basically if you drop a piece of food on the ground you shouldn’t eat it under any circumstances. Also the longer the food states on the floor, the more bacteria accumulates on the food. Therefore if you must eat something after dropping it on the floor, pick it up as fast as possible.

I think that if you drop something on the floor, you should just be safe and pick it up and throw it away. My classmate Autumn thinks “That is really nasty to think of all the bacteria that gets on your food but the less is better.” The author seemed to not have a bias, but just stated the facts.

Mac started the journey towards the fruit forest, sad and tired. As soon as he could make out the bright colors of the fruit forest in the distance, he decided to settle down and take a nap. He climbed into a nearby tree and, after getting comfortable, fell fast asleep.

About four hours later, Mac woke up feeling uneasy, as if someone was watching him. He looked around him, frightened and shivering. He didn’t see anything so he climbed down from his perch and continued on his way. He focused on the bright colors that were growing slowly as he got closer.

Every once in a while, Mac would feel eyes on him and look around. But every time he would turn around the feeling would go away.

After almost three hours of walking Mac figured that it was time to find a tree to sleep in for the night. He picked a jungle log tree and as he climbed up onto a sturdy branch in the middle of the tree, he thought about how much h missed his mother. He missed how they would curl their tails together, and she would sing to him until he fell asleep. He thought of how she would come home with breakfast every morning with a warm smile on her face. He cried himself to sleep that night, and by the time he did, there was only 13 minutes until midnight, when the animals of the forest to catch their dinner.

My nose was pressed against the airplane windows as I watched San Diego get smaller and smaller. I turned to face my sister, mom and dad and shrieked with joy, we were on our way to Kauai. The pilot announced on the intercom that we were allowed to turn on electronics so I tuned into The Other Woman until I paused to order a sprite from the passing drink cart.

Five hours and twenty-eight minutes later (to be exact) we were getting off the plane and entering the warm, humid air of Kauai. After getting our baggage from the baggage claim, and fetching our rental car, we were on our way to the hotel.

Once we arrived to our room, we headed down to check out the pool and the ocean. The pool was an awesome fade out pool, but the ocean was too rough to swim in. We weren’t used to the time change yet so we went to bed at seven o’clock.

The next day we woke up and went snorkeling right down the road, we packed a lunch then had a picnic at the beach. That afternoon we went  back to the pool, until it was time for dinner. We went out to dinner, then came back and went to bed.

This routine continued until we went snorkeling on a boat tour. Then the next day, ziplining. My sister had decided to come with my dad and I and my mom decided to take a day for herself. The plan was to apply for the seven zip lines and four bridge tour. When we arrived at the zip line place, we waited for the other people who would be coming with us to arrived. Once everyone was accounted for, we all got into a van and we started towards the zip line grounds.

About half an hour later, we got to the grounds. We walked over to “camp” where they harnessed us up and explained how to work the carabiners. My sister and I were under fourteen, so we weren’t allowed to do it for ourselves and our dad had to do it for us.
Next we walked towards the first platform and my dad volunteered to go first. I shook my head violently, hoping that he would get the message that I didn’t want to go at the beginning of the line, but he smiled and kept walking. My sister had made a deal with me and my dad that she would be in the middle of us, so that meant she was second and therefore I was third to walk up the ramp that took us up into the tree line. Once up at the top, I watched as my dad was clipped onto the line. He looked back and gave us a thumbs up then pushed off the platform and I gasped as he began getting smaller and smaller. Next it was my sister’s turn, she clipped in, looked back to give me one last nervous look then closed her eyes and yelped as she stepped off. I watched as she too got smaller and smaller.

Shaking I stepped forward when our guide motioned for me to come to the line. I closed my eyes and as I heard the  latch click connecting me to the cable, I said a small prayer. I looked at our guide and asked “Are you SURE this is safe? Where do I hold onto again?” He calmly reassured me about the safety and pointed at a spot on the line that attached my harness to the cable. “Okay. I can do this.” I said to myself then looked out at the tree line and stepped.

All of a sudden I was soaring through the air, the wind flushing my face. I looked down, then panicking, looked back up as the next platform was growing quickly. The next thing I knew I was running up the landing strip and saying hello to my dad and sister.
I turned around and found myself face to face with a bridge that was one plank of wood followed by a gap then another plank and so on and so forth. I looked back and realized that there was no there way to get to the next platform.

Once everyone had completed the first line we started off in the same order across the bridge, I looked at the planks instead of looking at the gaps, but it was almost impossible to avoid looking at the ground loads of feet below me. Eventually I managed to cross the bridge only to find that, to my horror, there was another one waiting for us before we could go on to the next zip line. I crossed it with more ease than the first one, but still shaking.
We completed the rest of the course including a tree-60, by pushing off a tree in the middle of the line and spinning in a full circle. Another cool aspect of the course was the swings hanging off the side of the fifth platform that only my sister and I went on. On the last line I even had the courage to go first!

After everyone had finished the last line, we all walked back to camp and took a break with the snacks and drinks that were provided. Then we all climbed back into  the van that took us back to the store, where we got into our car and drove back to the hotel.
At the hotel we relaxed, went out to dinner, then went to bed. We went snorkeling the next day and fell back into our routine that we had set when we had first gotten there. Before I knew it we were on our way home in a plane watching Kauai get smaller and smaller. By stepping off that platform I faced my fear and because of that I had the time of my life. Sometimes you just have to face your fears, otherwise you don’t know how bad they really are.