Write about an occasion when you made an impulsive decision that caused much suffering to the people around you.

 

It was all dark outside. The birds’ sweet chirping was faint but audible. Though it was already midnight, I was still sitting in front of the mahogany desk, painstakingly preparing for the next day’s final-year exam. My droopy eyes kept yearning for the embrace of the warm and comfortable bed while my swatch tried its best to persuade me to sleep. Yet I knew I could not do so. Being a scholar, I must study hard to live up to everyone’s expectation.

 

The moment I turned on my CD player, a sense of relief swept over me. The music was the simplest monotone of an old Chinese song but it carried with itself a sense of nostalgia which really comforted me a lot. It was celestial, I thought. How exhilarated I was to hear the melody of home when I was in such a fatigued state!

 

I was, however, too overwhelmed by the music that I failed to realize how my Malay roommate, Nadiah, was suffering from my ‘late night concert’. Nadiah was a timorous Malay girl who was silent at most times. I guessed she only spoke when spoken to. Being considerable and kind-hearted, she was also the best friend of mine. Then, overwhelmed by the familiar Chinese music, I simply ignored the fact that my best friend was moving restlessly in her bed, shifting and re-shifting her body to try to find a relatively better position to sleep. She could not escape. The music was everywhere. I did not switch off the CD player until it was about three o’clock in the morning. Soundly asleep at that moment, I was quite contented. With the help of the Chinese songs, I had been able to revise all the biology concepts before the actual day of the exam. “There was nothing to be worried about,” I told myself reassuringly, “you are going to get your distinction.”

 

Three and a half hours later when I finally woke up with swollen eyes, I was quite surprised to find that Nadiah was already sitting in front her desk. How unusual it was! Nadiah never woke up before seven o’clock! Did she change her mind and decide to adopt a healthier lifestyle? But before I could make a guess, she left the room. The door was slammed with such a great force that it almost dropped out of the frame. “She must be greatly offended,” I concluded after futile attempts to push back the door. But I could not think of any reason to her actions. “I treated her like a sister,” I muttered mournfully, “how could she do this to me?”

 

Finishing the exam with glee, I returned home early. It was such a blissful day! Everything I revised had come out in the exam and I was bale to answer them well. I was so jubilant that I decided to buy a snack for Nadiah when she came home. Smiling happily, I waited for Nadiah in anticipation.

 

Apparently, she was in no mood of sharing my happiness. She was obviously gloomy, of not devastated. Her eyes were scarlet and swollen from crying and her face dissolved into tears. Blood drained form her pale face. She sobbed slightly as she began, “Jinglin, you have completely ruined my final-year exam?”

 

“What?” I asked in disbelief. I did not know she had exams that day. However, I did not think I could possibly be the one who let her suffer. I loved her so much.

 

“Your Chinese music,” her voice became high and hysterical with anger, “it was extremely annoying and I couldn’t sleep last night. I just waited open-eyed in the bed until you switched off that god-damn CD player!” She waved her fists in front of my face in agitation.

 

“And what happened to your exams?” I carefully asked with a sense of guilt.

 

“I slept during the exam,” she shrugged, “and that’s all about it.”

 

I wilted as the words set in. How could I have been so cruel? I sacrificed Nadiah’s good results in order to get mine! I must be stupid and out of my mind to decide to play music in the midnight!

 

Knowing that it was too late to make any changes to the situation, I wrote a sincere letter to Nadiah, hoping that she would accept my apologies. However, she simply moved out of the room and lived with another friend of hers. We had lost contact since then. My grief grew like a cancer. I had learnt from this experience that one must be considerable to the people around him, or he would soon lost their love and trust. 

From <Alexander - Child of a Dream> by Valerio Massimo Manfredi

 

'Remeber, my Queen, the story of Achilles, ancester of your great family: he was given a choice of a brief but glorious life or a long and dull one. He chose the former, he sacrificed his life for a moment of blinding light.'

Another EL holiday assignment.

 

Eleven boys were playing joyfully near a railway. They chased each other, raced down all the way with excitement and laughed with jubilation. Among them, a small little boy named Tommy was strangely quite. He seemed unbothered by his cheerful mates and his indifferent behavior finally disappointed them. They asked him with curiosity, “Tommy, why didn’t you play with us?”

 

“Because this is very improper,” he said, frowning slightly, “to play at a railway where the train may come at any moment.” Then he suggested that they played at another railway which was deserted long time ago so that they would not be life-threatened by the incoming train. “What a coward!” They fleered at him and quickly went back to continue their exciting games.

 

Tommy was dejected. He let out an audible sigh, sagged his shoulders in defeat, apparently not pleased with the idea that his mates disbelieved his words. Nevertheless, his minds told him that he would better move to the deserted railway to avoid any kinds of inconvenient accident. With a bitter smile lingered on his face, he slowly walked towards the deserted railway, alone.

 

A gentleman saw the whole thing and decided to persuade the other ten boys to move to a safer place. However, at this very moment, the train arrived. The safety of the children was starting to worry the gentleman and now he had a tough decision to make. He could either shift the rail so that the train went to the deserted railway and killed the little boy or he could just wait there watching the other ten boys being bumped by the train, losing their precious lives in no time. Either way, somebody has to die. He hesitated. Tommy, the little boy was definitely innocent. He had made the right choice of playing at a safe place. However, sacrificing him could save ten other lives. Anyone, the gentleman thought, anyone who understood mathematics would choose ten lives over one. So he extended out his arms, managing to shift the rail.

 

“Stop this,” Themis, the goddess of justice, blindfolded and holding a set of scales, demanded in enunciated words. “stop this stupid action of your, human-being.” The gentleman looked up at her in surprise. “Why? Ten lives are more precious than one, aren’t they?”

 

“No,” she corrected him, “not at all. Justice favors not the majority. It is actually the nature law of fairness which states that everybody deserves what he deserves. In this case, the little boy made his decision which saved himself from the god of death. He should thus keep his life. On the other hand, the ten boys ignored good suggestions and chose to act against rules. It was a grave mistake and therefore, they had to die.”  She concluded dryly.

 

Leaving no time for the gentleman to react, she allowed the train to pass over her, and, with a huge ‘bang’ sound, ten beautiful lives were taken, forever.

Notes:I respect everyone's political views, but her comments are certainly not bright.

For the supporters of her comments because of the Chinese policy on Tibet, read a proper history book, go to visit Tibet and see it with your own eyes.

 

Sharon Stone can be a loudmouth idiot. Most Americans and Europeans know this because the actress is always draping herself over podiums and auction stages, loudly and obnoxiously trying to drum up support for charity causes. While the end may in fact justify the means, the means are still garish and a mite self-serving. Well now, blessed be, we can share our burdensome kinda-like/hate for Ms. Stone with another 1/5 of the world's population.

Yes Red China has wised up to the actress's ways after she blunderingly suggested on a red carpet that the massive earthquake in Szechuan was a bit of "karma" spurned on by the Chinese "not being very nice" to her "good friend" the Dalai Lama (who, as it turns out, has praised China's disaster relief efforts). The nation has now decided to issue a boycott of sorts, or at least its actors have. "This actress does not deserve our attention. The best way is to ignore her. I will never watch her films in future," said actor Liu Wei. Others Chinese performers have said she lacks "respect" and "humanity." Well, OK, we wouldn't go that far. She's just a little much sometimes. Oh, Sharon.

Comments:

1.On behalf of the other four billion people on God's green Earth, I would like to ask Sharon Stone to shut the fuck up, too.

2.She does lack respect and humanity. I am going there.

3.Considering that Chinese people cannot be more united now than ever since new China was born, any hostile comments on Chinese people and even Chinese government would trigger country-wide anger and attack. This is not nationalism, just how human responds to unfairness and distorted views

4.Wow, if the Sichuan Earthquake was karma to China, then I wonder what 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina was to the USA. It's pretty ironic how she's faking her sympathy for Tibetans when a lot of Sichuan residents are Tibetans as well. Way to shoot yourself in the foot, Sharon. You sure are stoned.

5.Ms. Sharon Stone's comment about China's deadly earthquake almost parallel to the extremists cheering after the 911 attack.

 

 

Title: A time when you received an unexpected piece of news

 

Note: This essay is purely fictive.

 

Nobody had expected the earthquake to happen so suddenly. The last time Sichuan had had an earthquake was about nine years ago and at that time it was definitely not as abrupt and massive as it was now. Several seconds ago we were still having our torturing English lesson. Miss Lim, as usual, was haranguing us on the dropping English results when a crevice, all of a sudden, appeared strangely on the wall. Before we could realize what had happened, the entire classroom started shaking.

 

Our desks moved from one side of the classroom to another, hitting the undefended students with their keen edges. The wall of our humbly furnished classroom shook vigorously and my heart skipped a bit at the sound of the ceiling light swaying back and forth. Seconds later, the headmaster’s desperate voice rushed out from the loudspeaker, making it very clear to us that the largest-ever earthquake in the history of China was taking place, now.

 

Before long, all lights died. Trapped in the gloomy classroom, I had to admit that I was actually extremely terrified. I fidgeted restlessly, looking this way and that, hoping to find a comforting company. In the eerie darkness, however, only Miss Lim’s dark silhouette was visible. She, too, was acting like a deer in headlights, stunned. I cleared my throat, opened my mouth, wanted to console her but only managed a muffled cry. Silence reigned for several minutes and abruptly, the aftershock took place.

 

I was sure the entire world started swiveling around. Trying hard to balance myself, I felt the content in my stomach jolted slightly. The thought of the building was about to fall down at any moment came across my mind and I was panicky at the thought of ending up right in this devastated classroom. How could this happen, I asked myself. I had not told mum and dad how much I loved them, nor had I confessed my love to the boy next door. Never had I thought about doing these things before because I always believed that the time had not come yet. But they suddenly became so important and urgent now. I was despondent at the thought of never letting my parents know how much I loved them.

 

We all hid ourselves under the desks, not daring to move even an inch.  Some of my classmates huddled together, whimpering, praying piously for Buddha’s mercy. It took what like an eternity for the disastrous earthquake to end. Jing was the first one who was daring enough to step out and check for casualties. After about five minutes, with uncertainty, she announced, “Well, I think it is probably over now.” Staring at each other, we looked rather puzzled, not sure whether we should move or not. Finally, we moved out of our shelters cautiously. “I’m glad it’s over.” Wong was the only one who managed to give a complete sentence. The rest of us were absolutely too petrified to response.

 

Looking back, I could only describe this earthquake experience as one of the most bizarre one I had ever experienced in my life.  I had never felt so close to death and so fortunate to be alive. I saw the fragility of life and was determined to no to waste any time to tell my beloveds before it became too late.

 

 

 

 

 

Ahh.. There is a lady that i dislike, who is, however, recently becomes one of our subject teacher. Oh, great. I'll try to find some shining point of her and try to be friendly with her. Regarding the holiday assignment, is was a incubus. Too many to be handed in yet too little had been done. Fight! Sherry!

And the EM/AM tests, which are gonna to come next week, are also fritening. Maths is one of my weakest. And I haven't work on it for months. May the God of Math bless me!

 

Lastly, I love my new roommate. She's so kind and benign and friendly. I'm loooooooooking forward to 2008!

The books we read,
The songs we sang,
The boys we liked,
They made our lives full of tears,
And joy.

Thanks for all the inspiring things.
Happy birthday and all the best.

 

Yours faithfully,
Sherry

History repeats itself. I mean, our EL FYE appeals to be a disaster again. The fives topics for Section A are "Rivalry", "Describe a time when you were unexpectedly thrust into limelight", "Write about a time when you got in trouble in law" and two discussive writing respectively. Obviously, no one was brave enough to try discussive. Most of us chose narrative. I also chose the second topic, which I put in all the words regarding "embarrassment" which I had just memorized ten hour earlier (I did not went to sleep until two o'clock cuz I was dreaded the prospect of failing EL. It would be extremely shameful.) Section B was functional writing. Formal letter, which we had practiced for ages. Yet time was not sufficient for me. I could barely finish.

 

Comprehension, predictably, was a failure. Passage A denotes a silly three-wheeled car produced by one of the Japan's most influential company. It talked about its advantages and disadvantages, which was rather lengthy and tedious. The vocabulary question was exceptionally confussing. I didn't know. Which word tells you that the Vice-president was pressed to answer the question? "Paused" or "finally"? Honestly speaking, I spent only 45 mins on compre cuz I knew I would definitely fail, so I focused more on the summary part which I identified 17 points and converted them into my "own words" as far as possible. Hopefully, it would again save me from the depth of the hell.

 

Still having nine more subjects to fight for. Go, Sherry!

We talked about our future last night. My ambition is to get to Ruffles Junior College, Princeton University(another alternate choice is Harvard), get myself a lucrative job after graduating, publish a book written in English, develop a movie, and then get married at around 30. I want a DINK(Double Income No Kid) family and two foster children - a lovely girl and a mischievous boy who resemble my future husband. Emmm.. How wonderful life would be...

Several weeks earlier, I read a story in <Chicken Soup>, which inspired me a lot.

 

One frigid night, ten schoolboys played at the railway track, where the train might come at any time. The youngest among them, by the name of Jack, foresaw their potential danger and he turned to his friends, claiming that the train was on its way and they should shift to another deserted railway track as soon as possible. It was a fabulous idea actually, but no one listened to him. They thought he was too circumspect and dubbed him Coward. Jack was pretty downcast, and he went to the deserted railway himself. To everyone’s surprise, the train came sever minutes later.

 

The railway where the group of schoolboys was was too far way from where Jack was. So it is impossible to get them out of there before the train came. Nether can other methods be used to save the children’s lives. Nonetheless, one method can still be used, that is, you sacrifice Jack by sending signals to the train-driver so that the train would ran at the deserted railway track instead of the one where nine boys were playing. By doing so, you would save nine lives. However, Jack will definitely die as there was no way he could escape. So, my question is, would you do it? What you save the nine children by sacrificing one?

 

The answer, for good or for bad, should be “No”. Jack oversaw the possible danger and had already warned the others not to play at the railway track. Whilst it was the boys who did not listen to advices and eventually resulted in their tragedy. They ought to pay their bills, although it was really an expensive one. They are responsible for their silly decisions. This introduces you our topic of today – responsibility.

 

Life is full of choices. Being responsible means being in charge of our choices and, thus, our lives. It means being accountable for what we do and who we are. It also means recognizing that our actions matter and we are morally on the hook for the consequences. Our capacity to reason and our freedom to choose make us morally autonomous and, therefore, answerable for whether we honor or degrade the ethical principles that give life meaning and purpose.

 

Therefore, we must exercise self-control, restraining passions and appetites such as lust, hatred, gluttony, greed and fear, for the sake of longer-team vision and better judgment. Only by doing so, we will be able to realize that we are as we choose to be, every day. 

I failed this common test.

Firstly, My Bio results is abysmal. It's kind of near the border line. I believed no one had done as bad as me. It was so depressing! I studies realy hard for Bio! I memorized every single word the text-book said. But I had also realized that I did not pay much attention in the class. This was really a bad habit. So I'd recently decided to adopted Boxer (The horse in the Book <Animal Farm>)'s personal motto as mine - I will work harder!

 

Secondly, I did not do well in Chem. For the second question, I lost a total of 8 marks, which really pissed me off. If only I got one of them right... Oh, the air was heavy with the smell of my blood...

 

And I did not do well in both A maths and E maths... For A maths it's only 33/50. I believed someone in C2 had got full marks. To fail math was really shameful.

 

However, I knew as clearly as everyone else the futility of complaining. I will work hard!~

 

By the way, August the 27th is the Chinese Halloween... Enjoy yourself!

Tomorrow is 9th of Augest, Singapore's 42nd birthday.   Happy birthday, Singapore.

 

This morning we had the national day celebration. I mean, the Singapore national day celebration. I knew clearly as everyone else that today was not my day. Yet I still felt ecstatic for my friends and as well as for Singapore. Christina wept. I used to treat her as if she was a pampered child, I was wrong. She had her thoughts. She had a sense of patriotism which I guessed I had long lost. Yet I did not agree with the way she behaved. It was Singapore's national day, nonetheless. The Singapore Government offered us money, study opportunities and other stuffs which were even beyond our imagination several years ago. I sort of felt that if we did not appreciate them we were taking advantanges from them. And I don't like taking advantages from anyone else. So, Julie and I screamed and laughed joyfully today and we had a blissful time. By the way, I looooooooooooved the songs they sang. They reminded me of China, though we never sang songs in our national day -- we got holidays. People says different cultural backgrounds yield different customs. If so, the Singaporean cultural background is certainly one of the best kinds.

 

Happy birthday, Singapura! 

Acknowledgement

 

We had accomplished our 6-day Microsoft Summer Trip.

First I’d like to thank Microsoft Corporation to provide us this wonderful opportunity to work with students of various cultural backgrounds and seek for solutions regarding the famous issue – Global Warming.

Secondly, I’d like to say thank you to our teacher-in-charge, Miss Ho, whose kindness and helpfulness had made this trip successful. Miss Ho gave us plenty of constructive suggestions during the trip and we learnt a lot of physics-related knowledge from her. That’s really very kind of her.

Thirdly, I’d like to give my love to Si Hua（思华）, whose ever-presenting smile and thoughtful heart had become the most powerful pump to our group and leads us to success.

Last but not least, I’d like to thank all my group members, including our teacher-in-charge Miss Ho, our Captain Zi Xian, and our intelligent group members Yi Tong, Ying Zheng, Bo Wei, and Kelvin. Their elite and productivity had made a different in our “Scientific Presentation”, which was highly praised by the judges. The third prize we received, we are still proud of ourselves.

 

TBC 

Mrs. Rupa, you let me down

06/07/2007

 

This is the last day I stay in Singapore. Tomorrow I will fly to Hong Kong to begin my beautifully created Microsoft Student Summer Trip. Yet I was not so delightful. Today Miss Chia announced the comments for our oral English Exam and she surprisingly called out my name, which suggested that I did not do well in the exam. I was depressed. Grace pointed out that I might be too self-confident, since no one could ever be so sure about her examination result. But this is different. I worked so hard. If there is ever a subject I would devote myself completely in to it, then this is English. Days and nights I practice for the oral exam, hoping to get a better result to please both my parents and my dear teachers. Yet this is this harsh reality that I nearly fail it. What is wrong with the education system? I just can’t figure it out myself. Help… 

Get me a VISA

25/07/2007

 

Wednesday is a disaster. At about 8 o’clock I went off school with a leave slip from Miss Ho to get myself a Visa, which would enable me to enter Hong Kong freely this weekend.