02-03
A story (by 5E Vicky
Pang Hoi Ki)
While we were waiting for the
teacher to come, an animal walked into the classroom. It
looked ferocious with a face like a dinosaur and it was
enormous. All of us were aghast.
It started to approach us. Its heavy steps made us so
frightened that we all dashed towards the door. But Chris
fainted when he heard the roar of the monster. We dreaded
that the monster would tear him apart and hastily we rushed
to rescue him. In the meantime, the tail of the monster had
already reached him and coiled him up. We threw some
stationery at it, however, the stationery didn't hurt it
much. It then opened its mouth and some gas came out.
‘Oh! That’s poisonous, let’s flee!’
One of us yelled.
We finally darted away from the classroom and ran downstairs
to the playground. The monster raced after us. Then we used a
nearby fire hose and pointed it towards the creature. Water
gushed out from the hose and hit it. It then slipped. We
quickly went to the staff room to ask for help.
After telling the teachers what had happened, we immediately
discussed the ways to fight against the monster. ‘Pour
the concentrated acid over it!’ One student suggested.
‘No! It won’t kill it.’ Another student
replied. ‘Do you think we can use fire?’ A
teacher asked. ‘We may be able to burn it to
death.’ ‘That is a good idea! But how can we set
up the fire?’ ‘Follow me!’ The teacher
said.
‘What’s the use of bringing us up here?’ A
classmate doubted and asked the teacher when all the people
arrived at the Chemistry laboratory. ‘Did you pay
attention in my lesson? Alkanol can be a fuel!’ The
teacher answered. All of us once again stood aghast and said,
‘how clever you are, my dear Chemistry teacher!’
Meanwhile, we heard some noises. ‘It’s the
monster. It hears us!’ We screamed. ‘Don’t
be scared! Boys, help me get the large containers labeled
‘alkanol’.’ ‘Girls, go to the
washroom to find some soaps and rub them on the floor near
the entrance of the laboratory.’
After a few minutes, everything was prepared. The fighting
unfolded. The girls yelled and the monster was piqued. It
banged against the door and smashed it. However, once it
stepped inside the laboratory where the floor was made
slippery, it could not help dancing on its legs and
eventually it slumped onto the floor. The boys then poured
the alkanol on it. The Chemistry teacher shouted,
‘everybody moves! Get out of here!’ As it was
struggling to stand up, all of us were gone except the
teacher. He lighted up a match and then threw it to the
monster. He then leaped to the door and ran out of the
laboratory as quickly as he could. The monster was engulfed
in flames.
The police came some time later after the fire alarm had
broken off. Several policemen were moving the burnt monster
away when we shouted, ‘oh! Where’s Chris? We
forget him. He was coiled up by the monster’s
tail!’ The police then searched for him. Fortunately,
he was left in the classroom and only suffered some small
cuts.
The problem was over! All of us cheered and hugged each
other. It was the cooperation and not getting flinched that
made us win. Actually we learnt more on that day than any
other regular lessons.
Want to be trendy? Let’s go to tutorial
classes! (by 5E Yuki Wong Luk Yin)
Do you know what most of the students will do after school
nowadays? Playing ball games at school? Shopping? Watching
films? If your answer is one of the above activities, I would
say that you are definitely outdated. What is the answer
then? It is attending tutorial classes. The number of
students attending tutorial classes has increased sharply in
recent years. Let us see why students attend these classes.
Chris Wong, a form five student from an EMI school has
started attending tutorial classes since he was in Form Two.
When we asked him why he joined the classes, he told us that
he wanted to feel secure. These tutorial classes always give
students a lot of exercises to do and piles and piles of
notes. These notes and exercises make those who attend these
classes feel they have got enough practices and preparations
for the public examination. Chris is now attending three
subjects’ tutorial classes and he spends more than a
thousand dollars on his tuition fee every month. Sometimes,
he really feels very tired after school, but still he has to
go to the lessons. When we asked him why he did not study
those subjects by himself, he said that the notes provided by
the tutorial class are better than the points from the
textbooks. We found that peer pressure is another reason why
Chris has to attend lessons outside school. He revealed to us
that many of his classmates are attending tutorial classes,
if he does not, he may lag behind.
Most students believe that they can benefit from the tutorial
classes. The notes provided by tutorial classes are very
intensive. Students can save their time from reading loads of
reference books and jotting the notes themselves. They can
use the saved time to do more practices. Students also claim
that teachers in tutorial schools teach them the skills of
answering questions so they can get marks easily. Moreover,
some students think that teachers in school are not as good
as and as professional as teachers in tutorial schools. The
latter ones have their names printed on different newspapers
claiming that they have helped a lot of students to get A in
the subject they teach. They are said to be more experienced
than school teachers in preparing students for the public
examination.
There are also drawbacks of attending tutorial classes. To
some students, tuition fee of these classes are so expensive
that their family cannot afford. Some may spend much time
going to tutorial classes and they do not have enough time to
do homework and revision. The notes from the tutorial classes
may be good but they deprive students of being an independent
learner. Notes from tutorial schools actually deter students
from reading read different reference books and jotting notes
on their own. Students do not have to go through the thinking
process that is needed when deciding which information is
important. They become too dependent on the notes made by
others. Moreover, those students who attend tutorial classes
may not pay attention during school lessons anymore as they
think they can have one more chance to learn what they have
missed.
From my point of view, attending
tutorial classes is just a waste of time. Teachers at schools
are more qualified than those in tutorial schools. If we pay
attention in class, read more reference books and make our
own notes, we can also get a very good result in the public
examination. Whenever we have problems in our studies, we can
seek help from our school teachers. We have everything we
need at school, why don’t we spend our money in a
smarter way?
Is it ever right for a
country to fight a war? (by 6A Jacky Li Ping Him)
Is it ever right for a country to fight a war? People may
have different answers to it. Different countries waged
different wars in the past. From these wars, I can tell it is
never right for a country to fight a war.
Wars are the outcomes of governments’ selfishness. In
fact, wars are always aggressive and revengeful, there are
seldom defensive wars. Therefore, wars are avoidable.
Nevertheless, politicians and rulers desire for land and
fame. They may think that their countries would be strong if
they could gain more land from others. As a result, they
annex or plan to invade other adjoining, or even far-away
nations at all costs. It is a fatal result that nations are
always provoked so easily and finally, wars broke out.
Unfortunately, those who suffer from these wars are never the
rulers! They are well protected and they keep themselves away
from the battlefields. Consequently, those who suffer are the
innocent civilians and the soldiers! The selfishness and
greediness cast a chill over the war-weary populace.
The rulers ignore the valuable life of the populace. It is
easy to understand that once the war starts, it is the
populace who bears the brunt. It is very unfair. Waging a war
is a very vital decision. Once a war breaks out, transaction
may stop, supply of food and daily necessities are cut. The
daily life of the civilians is threatened. Starvation,
homelessness and ruthless bombardment are frequent. On the
contrary, the rulers, however, are always enjoying their
lives in their residence. We can see the enormous death
figures in wars and the dead are not honoured or buried
properly. The battlefields are their graves! Extreme cases
can be recognized in the Middle East. People there really
suffer from continuous wars, from cradle to grave! Therefore,
it is never right for a country to fight a war because the
civilians are often brainwashed by their rulers and become
the slaves of wars.
The decision of joining war of one country may even harm
other countries in reality. An apparent example could be
found. Recently, the Americans have conducted a war with
Iraq. It is a war which stirs the stability all over the
world. As the US is a pillar of the world economy, once she
declared war on Iraq, the businessmen or investors gave up
their plans of investing in the US or even stopped purchasing
shares of US companies. Their hopes of making money are
dashed. As a result, the economy of the whole world is
pressurized as the US shoulders a heavy mountain in economic
aspect. The above example illustrates how serious the
influence of wars is. In developed nations, which could not
withstand such an economic down-turn, suffer more seriously.
The populace may be poverty-stricken and the country has to
attract loans from others. The cycle continues in an
extremely unhealthy way. As an outcome of war, the inevitable
economic recession becomes unbearable.
It is too obvious that war is destructive in all areas. The
selfishness of the rulers, the threatened population and the
subsiding economy are all brought by wars. The
above-mentioned consequences are merely a drop in the ocean
when analyzing the results of wars.
In my opinion, the rulers should refrain from being
aggressive. Therefore, it is never right to fight a war,
despite its nature. Why can’t we live in a peaceful
world?
Chinese Customs (by 6A Elton Chan Wing
Ching)
Superstition is one strange thing. It means believing
something which is merely impossible, like magic, for no
reasons. It is nearly inexplicable that even some highly
civilized peoples still believe in supernatural power. The
English never walk under a ladder to avoid bad luck; the
Americans believe that ‘thirteen’ is an unlucky
number. The Chinese, probably one of the most faithful
followers of superstitions, seem to be a bit more
money-minded than others. They are only concerned about
things that can bring them great fortune.
Perhaps nothing can be more complicated than the Chinese
customs in Lunar New Year (Chinese New Year). Words like
‘death’, which carry unlucky meanings, are
strictly forbidden. The Chinese will avoid using knives in
these days as they think good luck will be cut off. Brooms
are also not allowed as the ‘luck of fortune’ may
be swept away. No one is allowed to cry and, disgustingly, a
few may even do not wash their hair or body to keep the luck
with them. All these unreasonable customs, not surprisingly,
serve only one purpose – to bring the luck of fortune.
All the ‘lucrative customs’ will end sooner or
later in the first ten days of Lunar New Year. On 26th
January (traditional calendar), however, there will be
another ‘triumph of fortune’ for the
superstitious Chinese to strive for. It is believed that Kuan
Yin – a traditional Buddhist Goddess of mercy –
will open her ‘warehouse’ and lend money to the
faithful ones. Worshippers will pick a lucky time, usually
from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., going to the temple, to borrow money
from a statue. They will write down the amount they want on a
red slip of paper, then burn it in front of the statue.
People love to write down astronomical numbers such as
‘a trillion dollars’. They will receive, of
course, no actual money. In contrast, they will have to spend
a lot on tributes to worship the Goddess. Yet, these people
believe the real fortune will be with them in the coming
year.
January is not the only chance to gain luck of fortune. Some
may worship Tsai Shen – a traditional god of wealth.
The original name of him is Chiu Gong Ming, a legendary
feudal lord in ancient time. He was titled as God of Wealth
in Chinese Heaven after death and was responsible for
managing the fortune of the mortal world. For more than a
thousand years, people have believed Tsai Shen would guard
them and bring them great fortune. Chinese, especially
gamblers who need the blessing most, like to place a statue
of Mr. Chiu at home and worship it every day in the hope of
becoming rich some time with his blessing.
Superstition is one old thing. It has been existing since the
beginning of Chinese history. After centuries of efforts,
nevertheless, neither Kuan Yin nor Tsai Shen seems to be
helping the faithful Chinese out or poverty. The beliefs have
already been questioned harshly for millions of times. Yet,
these age-old customs are still very likely to survive.