Undergraduate / UVA supplement-What's your favorite word and why? 250 [9]

Please do not hesitate to correct and criticize every aspect of my essay, also please suggest suitable conclusions. :-) Thank you very much!!!!!!

UVA supplement-What's your favorite word and why? 250

Yin-Yang, a Chinese philosophy concept, is my favorite word. Yin-Yang suggests the interactions of contradictory forces that counter against and depend on each other, establishing the state of dynamic equilibrium: whenever one specific quality reaches its peak, it will naturally begin to transform into the opposite quality, and thus none of the force will be used up.

I am firstly impressed by how this word demonstrates universal principle of nature in such a simple, organized and romantic way. From the phase change of moon in astrology, to temperate zones season rotation in metrology; from the reaction equilibrium in chemistry, to the counterpart pairs of material and dark material in physics, Yin-yang symbolize nearly all phenomena.

Yin-yang tells me all elements are kept in balances, interactively or intrinsically, within a predicted or not predicted ways, and this deeply affects my personal philosophy. Unlike those showing excessive emotion upon changes, I always keep a relatively tranquil mood, regarding both the wax and the wane as inevitable natural processes. I never mind the test score; I take it easy to judge nation's the decline and rise in history, no matter Russia, Britain or my home country China. Unlike those who always seek the peak of success, I am more satisfied to stay in the trajectory of progression and do something every day. Though sometimes I am caught by failure and my effort was wasted in the obvious sense, I firmly believe, Yin-yang, the eternal balancing, will reward me some day somewhere in some way.

Undergraduate / "I want my tears back"; UVA supplement -Music that challenged,unsettled,surprised you? [2]

hi, i am looking for your guys advice sincerely.:-) Please do not hesitate to correct and criticize every aspect of my essay, also please suggest suitable conclusions.

i especially wonder 1. whether my essay answer the prompt 2. do some presentations sound werid for i am not a native speaker?
Thanks!

What work of art, music, science, mathematics, or literature has surprised, unsettled, or challenged you, and in what way? 250

Rare music can surprise or investigate me as the song "I want my tears back" of that sleepless night.
It was 1am in the midnight but I was still lucubrating with the Matrix under lamp. I repeatedly said to myself:" Stay awake! Keep mind clear! Aren't you want to be a mathematician? Learn it now! Now!" However, I couldn't withstand my reversibly heavier eyebrows. In the semi-sleep state, I used my last soberness to take out phone to play the metal music list. Metal, containing strong beat and overall loudness, was always the most useful "noise" to wake me up. I want my tears back was no exception and I sobered up quickly. "Wait,tears?back?" after waking, I started to pay attention to the lyric rather than melody. I heard the female vocal retrospect the past sceneric childhood yearningly and the male repeat I want my tears back grieved. Moreover, the song asked 'Where are the sleepless nights I used to live for', a surprising question for me to meditate in such a sleepless night. I had spent numerous sleepless but seldom ask myself why. Just for mathematics or pursuit of endless knowledge? Perhaps not, after long-time thinking, I concluded it was instead all for the young's intellectual passion, for the brilliant or naïve dream to accomplish something, for the dedication and tenacity worth remembering when I got old, not motivated at all, even with tears.

This is how the song surprised me by its lyric content.