LA test and R & R exercises

Recently, I just got back my expository and R & R exercises' results. I did badly for both. I admit that I am weak in LA but I have never gotten so low before. Thus, I decided to reflect on what I have done wrong and try to learn from my mistakes.

Firstly, I will reflect on my expository essay. Even though I listened to my teacher's advice to use transition words, my language marks was still quite poor. I guess that this is because of my poor sentence structure. I will try to improve on it. Also, I misunderstood the question (I thought that Arts include LA) and could not provide any real life examples to prove my point. Thus, I scored badly.

About my R & R exercise, I couldn't understand the passage, even though I annotated!(I thought that the Camilla represents purity!) and thus I scored badly. I will try to re-annotate TKAMB if I have the time.(more carefully this time)

But these are all over already, no point crying over spilled milk. So during this 2 weeks, I will try to remember quotations and examples and hopefully do better for the mid-term exam.

黄城夜韵 Chinese Drama

After watching the Chinese drama "黄城夜韵" organized by our school , I feel that it is a very good show in total. It acts out problems that can occur in our real lives. From this drama, I have learnt a lot of things. The drama was about the problems met when producing a drama.

Firstly, I have learnt not to prejudge other people or assume anything in situations before actually knowing the person or understanding the situation. In the drama, a lot of people thought that the 2 directors were in love, never taking the drama seriously and being unfair to them as they are here to produce a drama. But actually, the female director was not in love with the male director. The 2 directors often stayed up late in the night together to do the scripts for the drama. The female director, after seeing how hardworking the male director is, admired him but not love. If we prejudge a person for example based on their looks. We will ignore those with average looks but that person may be kind in heart and we might have lost a good friend.

Secondly, I learnt to think for others and not only yourself, if not your friends will leave you. In the drama, the female director always thought that only her views were correct and that the people whose expertise was at that certain area was wrong and scolded them. This even caused some of them to sign a contract with another company to work there. When your friend leaves you, it is already too late for regret. We should cherish our friends, unlike the female director in the drama.

Lastly, I learnt about the importance of teamwork and perseverance which are probably the main theme of the drama. In the end, after the people producing the drama worked together and never gave up, they finally succeeded. In life, if there is a will, there is a way, we must persevere till the end. Furthermore, teamwork is very important. A famous Chinese saying: “在家靠父母，在外靠朋友”. At home you depend on your parents, but after going outside and working, you will depend on friends. A lot of things cannot be done by one single person, but with many people together, nothing is impossible.

Favorite Anime

My favorite anime is Detective Conan(mentioned in previous posts) and its name suggests, it is a anime about mysteries. It is about a famous high school detective, Kudou Shinichi, who was with his girlfriend, Mouri Ran, in a amusement park and he saw some men in black(black organization members) doing some illegal business there. As he was watching, he did not notice one of the men coming behind him, the men hit him with a bat and forced him to take a new experimental pill, APTX 4869 which was supposed to kill him. However, a rare side-effect happened and turned him into a child. Then, Kudou Shinichi changed his name to Edogawa Conan to hide the fact that he is alive in case the black organization searchs for him and to search for clues to apprehend the black organization and cure himself. Meanwhile, he stays at Ran's place(Ran does not know Conan is Shinichi). Ran's father, Mouri Kogorou, who is a novice detective, also lived in there. As Conan searches for clues, a lot of cases happened, as he cannot solve the crime as Conan, he has to use Professor Agasa's inventions- a wristwatch that can put people to sleep and a bowtie that is a voice changer- to solve cases. He often poses as Kogorou and thus Kogorou became a famous detective.

I recommend this anime to all of you especially those studying Japanese, as this is not only very interesting(every episode is unique) and EPIC(especially parts with black organization but it also helps to improve your Japanese. Lastly, it is still producing new episodes. Luckily, the author and editors of Detective Conan were not affected in the recent Japan earthquake.

Science Center

I went to the science center on 2th May. It was indeed a fun and enriching trip. We went around the exhibitions first. What interest me the most was the maths room where there were lots of interesting formulas such as e=mc2 and e^(i*pi) + 1 = 0 which I have no idea why. Besides going to the usual exhibitions that everyone have seen before, we also went to a science show which was about liquid nitrogen. Liquid nitrogen is a liquid colder than dry ice which boils at -196 degrees Celsius, so its actually boiling in room temperature. When we pour it on the floor, it instantly vaporizes. The experimenters also made a soft banana into a hammer by pouring liquid nitrogen on it, as the banana contains water which turn into ice, it becomes as hard as a hammer and successfully hammered a nail into a chair. But when they tried pouring liquid nitrogen on a flower, although it became hard, when we tried to hammer a nail into a chair, the flower shattered into pieces. This was because that the frozen flower was like a thin layer of ice, it is hard but brittle. Then, they poured liquid nitrogen on a rubber balloon, they used it as a nail and hammered it in. This was possible even though it did not contain water due to the properties of rubber, when rubber contracts, it loses its flexibility and becomes stiff. Next, they tried to contain liquid nitrogen, they poured some into a plastic container and capped it with a lid tightly but the lid still popped out. Then they poured some into a glass flask and covered the mouth with a balloon. The balloon inflated and finally burst. This was because when liquid nitrogen vaporizes, its volume increases by about 600 times. After that, they tried to squeeze in a lot of balloons into a small box by pouring liquid nitrogen on it, this was possible as the air contracts when it is cool and the balloon's volume becomes smaller. Then, they took out the contracted balloons and the air inside expanded and the balloon had a bigger volume. However, some of the balloons burst as the air inside expanded faster than the rubber becoming flexible. Finally, they created a giant cloud by pouring lots of liquid nitrogen into a big unsealed container and adding hot water to it, the liquid nitrogen vaporizes faster and created a gigantic cloud. As I was seating in the first row, I could feel the nitrogen vapor, it was very cooling and I could not see the thing in all of that cloud. In total, the trip was very fun and enriching, I hope to come here again.

Computer Game Addiction

I have known that a lot of my classmates are addicted to computer games such as "Minecraft" and facebook games. But only recently that I have noticed how serious the addiction was!

Tests were coming up, but these students did not even care. When the teachers was teaching, they would just hide their laptops under the table and play, some were even so daring that they played right in front of the teacher! On those days where Wireless@HCI was down, one even used the teacher's LAN cable so that he could play!

It takes a gamer to know another gamer. Previously, I was also very addicted to computer games, I would play from morning till night without food or water and in the end, my grades dropped to a record low. Seeing this, I knew that I should stop playing but I couldn't. I even kept thinking about computer games in class and when I want to study, I will have no mood! Luckily, in Sec 2 Term 1 Sabbatical, I attended a cyber wellness program. This program was very fun and helped to get rid of my addiction.

Everyday in that week, I would go to a center in Bukit Merah for that program. I expected it to be very boring. But unlike other programs, this program is not telling you to quit gaming, but rather, telling you that there are other interesting and fun things in life. We had various activities such as kayaking and games such as Wii. Unlike other cyber wellness programs, we were told to play our favorite computer games there. We had a lot of fun, getting to know each other at the same time. We also did a test to find out our talents and occupations we want to be when we grow up. This was truly helpful in getting rid of my addiction.

In conclusion, I suggest that those who are addicted to computer games to go to this sabbatical course next term(you have to tell Cao Lao Shi or Mrs May Chen) or find another hobby other than computer gaming which is just as engaging and fun but consumes less time. But ultimately, it is still about self control, gaming is fine but it is not when it consumes most of your time. For me, I still game quite a lot but I know when to game and when not to.

Third Language

I have been taking Japanese as my third language for a year and a half now. I have wanted to learn Japanese so that I can watch my favourite anime "Detective Conan"(名探偵コナン）without subtitles which could can take subbers half a year to sub Detective Conan movies. However, as I am learning Japanese, I have become very interested in their culture than just watching an anime.

Japanese lessons are very fun and engaging. Our teacher is very kind and not fierce. She would always use objects, games and PowerPoint slides for her class so that we are engaged. Our teacher has literally everything in her handbag.(plastic fruits, long pencils, even soft toys!) She uses this objects to teach us nouns, how to describe an action or object. In total, I think that she is a very good teacher.

However, all these fun has ended as our exams came. A lot of us did not study and was not prepared for the test. 2 weeks ago, we received our test results, half of the class have failed but I got 47.9/55 marks, 3rd in class. [Evil Akira Makino >:( ] Most of the students after receiving their terrible results did not even feel remorseful. Instead, they were even laughing and comparing to see whose score was the lowest. Even the new student who have quit Japanese for 1 year got higher than them. I feel that they should treat Japanese lessons more seriously, not as a place to chat and socialize or they would just be wasting their time there. However, all is not lost, let's all study hard and ace the next test!

皆さん、がんばってください！：D

Upcoming exams and competitions

Right after I thought that the tests were finally over, I saw the emb message that there were 2 more mid term exams for LA and IH both subjects which I am weak in. I think I will study very hard for these tests but there is a problem: Both of the tests requires us to remember alot of information , such as statistics; quotations; etc. And, I will tend to forget most of the things I studied unless I study the night before. Furthermore, I have not read a lot of newspapers and I know nothing about the general elections, so if it comes out I will probably fail it.

On the same week, there will be the SMO. I hope I would do well in this year's SMO as it is my last year participating in the Junior Section. Maths, unlike LA and IH, does not require one to conduct any research before hand. Thus it is much simpler for me as I only have to remember the methods.

Why couldn't Maths and LSS be our mid term exams? D:

Blog Comments

1.http://quekface.blogspot.com/2011/05/shakespearean.html?showComment=1305103936042#c8827505584498825810

2.http://quekface.blogspot.com/2011/05/two-weird-words-in-english-language.html?showComment=1305104345114#c8921952672638359644

3.http://behla2i2.blogspot.com/2011/05/my-feature-article.html?showComment=1305104869849#c4634786719556175479

4.http://sparkielamelife.blogspot.com/2011/03/term-2-new-term-xd.html?showComment=1305105201018#c4144847273622992880

5.http://blogofdavidwho.blogspot.com/2011/05/tennis-tournament.html?showComment=1305105412192#c4403569471040297916

6.http://lashirley.blogspot.com/2011/05/about-expository-essay.html?showComment=1305105718817#c2795419538527953484

7.http://behla2i2.blogspot.com/2011/04/how-can-i-improve-my-comprehension.html

8.http://quekface.blogspot.com/2011/05/migrate-immigrate-and-emigrate.html

9.http://isandcastler.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-05-02T19%3A26%3A00%2B08%3A00&max-results=1

Blog Prompt

How has learning about newsworthiness and types of news articles (straight news articles and feature articles in different sections of the newspaper) affected the way you read newspapers?

After learning about newsworthiness, I realised that broadsheets may not be so boring and unreliable after all, as I always thought that broadsheets were propogandas and were bias to one side or that it is very boring and reports about unimportant news. But, I found out that broadsheets can be interesting, especially those with titles that catches my attention and that sometimes, it can contain feature articles(not always straight news articles). Broadsheets are important and may report important events like the recent Japan earthquake which has a huge impact on our lives (one factor of newsworthiness) . Furthermore, days which the newspaper reported articles that were boring were usually because they had nothing to write about. Thus, I after learning about newsworthiness and types of news articles, I do not only read tabloids which contains a lot of feature articles, but also read some of the broadsheets.

The Maycomb Tribune

Fire Breaks Out at Atkinson's

A big fire broke out at Old Miss Maudie Atkinson's house last night burning it till nothing was left. To make matters worst, the fire even spread to some of her neighbours such as Mr Atticus Finch and Miss Rachel Haverford.

It was a little after one when the incident happened. The town fire siren wailed and woke every white in the town. The men of Maycomb all helped to save Miss Maudie's furniture. They include Mr Avery Dick who almost could not make it out of the fire.

Mr Avery Dick was trying to throw down furniture from the upper level of Miss Maudie's house. But, the stairs burned down and he was trapped in. He tried to squeeze through the window but got stuck halfway. After much struggling, he finally got loose and crossed the upstairs porch. He swung his legs over the railing and slided down a pillar but he slipped and fell. Luckily, he fell onto Miss Maudie's shrubbery and was not injured severely. But he will still be in bed for a week.

Soon, fire trucks arrived and after one night of fighting, the fire was finally stopped. Then, everyone went back to sleep.

Our reporters have interviewed Miss Maudie and she was not looking sad, she said "Always wanted a smaller house. Gives me more yard. Just think, I'll have more room for my azaleas now!" and when our reporters asked her why wasn't she grieving, she replied " Why, I hated that old cow barn. Thought of settin' fire to it a hundred times myself, except they'd lock my up."

Miss Maudie is currently staying at Miss Stephanie Crawford's and will be staying there until she has a new house. The firemen have not yet located the cause of the fire, but they suspect that the carpet which was near the fireplace burned and spread to the house. This incident is a reminder to citizens of Maycomb to keep flammable objects away from the fireplace. If anyone has related information about this incident, please call our hotline 5184 9589 or come to our office at Maycomb, Street 89, Media Centre, #03 -56.