Hwachong Cross Country'11

We were going to embark on the 2o11's Cross Country Race. All, the whole of SEC 2,were standing at the starting line, preparing to start the run. Beads of perspiration rolled down my face as my heart started pounding faster and faster. Sweat filled with hardwork had been perspired by me as I had gone through several practices during PE. I had to perform well. I need to win. I needed to help 2i2 to gain reputation. "Start!" the emcee shouted. Many students started to sprint forward wih all their might leaving nothing behind except sweat and the hunger for victory. I had decided to stay slow and steady in order to jog for the whole 3.6km. My stamina had improved tremendously throughout the past few weeks and was confident of jogging for the whole race. Soon, I was far behind most of the students but signs of fatigue had already shown up on some students' faces and I had overtook them with ease. This shows the importance of stamina in a long distance run, instead of dashing forward recklessly. After running up the slope of the Tan Kah Kee Drive, I began a slow jog down the other side of the drive. I had the learnt the importance of jogging slowly down the slope instead of running down at full speed. By jogging, I will manage to keep my momentum and keep myself out of danger. It was a slow run but with patience, nothing is impossible. I started to move up the slope that lead to the Boarding School. It was quite a steep slope and was quite energy-consuming for my leg muscles as they strained under the tiring upslope jog. My forehead had already collected at least a hundred beads of sweat and some of them were dripping slowly into my eyes,stinging them after overcoming the defence from the eyebrow. Some shades of greenery could be seen at the tip or top of the slope. The tall and shady trees gave me some cover from the torturous sun rays as a cool breeze refreshed my mind, reviving my energy. After a few moment, I had reached the top of the slope. The scenery there was quite different from the one you see in the terraces. I can see many bungalows and terraces, beside some tall buildings. Shades of green can be spotted anywhere near the buildings. It was quite a magnificent view. After taking a quick glance, I started making my way down the slope. The downhill jog was generally much smoother and easier. However, I had followed Mr Ken Toh's advice and moved down slowly, instead of dashing down with all my might. By now, I had overtook many other students that had sprinted at the starting line. However, there are still some students who had sprinted generally all the way and were near to the finishing line by now. I would never match up with them as they are from the Cross Country Club. After finishing the downhill slope with ease, I went back round the Kah Kee Drive. On my way, I noticed a green van cruising by me and then realised it was the MILO van! I was tempted to stop halfway to get a refreshing cup of MILO. I knew that drinking too much fluid during an exercise will result in stitch and thus, I decided not to take any chances. Soon, I had reached the track. I could hear the Top 20 Songs Countdown and they were playing my favourite song. My legs moved to the beat and started gaining energy. I started picking up speed, getting encouragement and support from the audience who were clapping loudly and my favourite song which was giving me motivation and energy to sprint on. Not for long, I shot past the finishing line getting thunderous applause for the speed that I was moving 50m before the line. I was exhilarated when I heard that I was 8th in the whole mass run and had broken my own personal record by thirty seconds! I had not expected myself to be doing this well. Like they say,"Practice makes perfect", I am glad that my efforts and hardwork had paid off.

Term 1 LA Test

My result is only 18/30. I feel sad. I regret. I hope. I wish. I work.

I have to learn from my mistakes from this test in order for me to improve. Ms Huang told me that my language was not bad but I did not apply them properly and I was lazy. I need to read more books and to improve on my vocabulary command. Ms Huang recommended Detective stories as they have rich descriptions of the settings that will enable us to improve on our descriptive language. The descriptions of the characters will also allow us to learn more descriptive language that can be applied. I also have to get more ideas on writing different type of essays. It was necessary as the essay that I had written had a bad plot. I had no idea what to write when I saw the word 'compromise'. After a few minutes, I can only cook up with a lousy story that did not display much of the word 'compromise'. Normally, the moment I see the theme that I was supposed to write, an idea will immediately, or I would say instantly come to my mind. And that idea will generally be acceptable or sufficient to give me normal grades. However, I had known that whenever that I am stuck on generating ideas, I know that I will be doomed. That is why, I have to read more books, like what Ms Huang said, in order to get more ideas and to improve on my language command.

Reflection of Mississipi Burning

The show is quite vulgar and violent but it clearly shows the discrimination of the African-American through several lynching and encounters between them. It was quite sad and heart breaking to see so many innocent Blacks killed by the Whites. Even though all of them are Christians, the Whites still firmly believe that the Blacks are evil and guilty. The Whites even killed the Civil Rights Activists to keep the Blacks as their slaves and under their control. However, the Blacks kept under low profile and never once retaliate. They kept calling the Whites, sir and madam, never once dared to disobey their orders and talked back. They can only kept their head low even after seeing their churches being burnt down, their race people being lynched, killed and bullied. I felt sad to see all the bullying and felt that they should fight for their rights as they had done nothing wrong to deserve that. However, the show kept showing the terrible side of the Whites, as they emphasised on the pity of the Blacks. This made the viewers feel that the Whites are very evil while the Blacks are throughly kind and pitiful. This concept is wrong as all type of races and religions have bad people. Your race does not decide whether you will be a bad person. Thus, the show had ended up degrading the Whites while trying to get the audience to pity the Blacks.

Racism

I believe that racism means being prejudiced against a certain race. I strongly opposed people who shows racism qualities. One good example is the discrimination of the Blacks who are the African-Americans during the 1900s. Many of them had been lynched or segregated by the Whites during that time. The Whites had thought that they were somehow higher rank than the Blacks. They thought that the African Americans were liars and evil. I was outraged at their point of view. What makes them think that just being white makes you a greater and godly person? They think that they are so almighty just by having a white skin tone. I feel that racism is a foolish thing as the skin colour of a person does not show any thing about the person. Equality should be important as everyone is equal regardless of their race, religion, sex and age. Race is something that we are born with, the person cannot decide what race to be when he is born. We cannot discriminate a person just because of his race and skin colour. We can only judge a person by his character and person. Fortunately, the society in these days have minimise racism and many people have started to believe in equality in all races. I hope the equality will not be pushed over in the future to prevent unnecessary bloodshed and tears.

Pg 20 To Kill a Mockingbird Study Guide

1.Jem and Scout were concerned with Bob's threats effects on Atticus.

2. Bob tried to murder Scout and Jem for revenge after he lost his pride in the court. However, he did not manage to kill them but was stabbed in the end. Boo Radley brought the injured Jem back to Atticus. This showed that Boo was a compassionate man not any weirdo that Jem and Scout had thought.

3. Scout treated Boo politely and was filled with gratitude. She took Boo to a slightly darker corner so that Boo will not feel to uncomfortable. She used to think that Boo was a weirdo that had weird and dangerous behaviors but after this incident, she realised that Boo is also a normal person that was kind.

4. Yes. Scout was still young and she did not do it on purpose. She could have died if she did not act on self-defence.

5.Yes. If we take one step by one step, the improvement will be more stable. The improvement will not be pushed over that easily. Although during the long change many black people will be killed, the improvement will be better and the public will also be able to accept other races slowly. You cannot expect to change thier point of view in a short amount of time.

Pg 16 To Kill a Mockingbird Study Guide

1. A group of people wanted to kill Tom Robinson who was defended by Atticus. Scout spotted Walter Cunningham's father and used Entailment as a topic to get their interest. After that, they left the jail.

2. Atticus showed that Bob was a left-handed and Tom a left-handed too. He also showed that Tom did not raped Mayella as his left-hand was torn off by a machine.

3.Mayella is scared that his father will punished her and abuse her further. Atticus feared that the jury will still stand on the white men's side and not on justice's side。

4. The author kept emphasising on Mayella crying whenever she was questioned. He also showed many signs of her feelings of helplessness.

5. No. Now, the court will no longer be prejudiced against any races but focused and emphasised on concrete evidences. The jury and court now believes on freedom and equality so races and other factors are not important when it comes to decide who is guilty or not.

Compromise

I feel that many things cannot happen without compromise. Basically, compromise means that a settlement of differences by mutual concessions . An example is the compromise made between Scout and Atticus agreeing on Scout going to school and Atticus reading books to Scout every night. Having compromise also makes the world a better place. Because of the agreement that both war parties agree on, many bloodshed can be avoided. However, compromise may be something bad as concessing to someone's illegal activities is wrong. I had a compromise between a student called Trevor(a student in my primary school). He is a school bully and he used to sit right beside me. He used to grab my collar and "strangled" me. He also jabbed my stomach quite often. I was no match for him as he is much taller and stronger than me. I though of an idea related to homework. I notice that he seldom does his homework and his results most of the time was horrendous. Thus I decided to offer a compromise. I told him that if he would stop bullying me, I will tuition him and will also give him some tips on a certain subject before the exam. He agreed to it without hesitation. After that, we signed our math textbook, Agreement by blah, blah, blah.. by Evil Trevor and Smart Samuel. Thinking of it, it was quite funny to think that we attempted to act as adults. Compromise can made by anyone to any people. As long as you guys need something to agree on, a compromise an be made.