Friday, August 19, 2011

Composition Contributed by Ivan (unedited) - A Secret

A Secret

A cool breeze brushed lightly on my face. I knew that the weather was perfect. As I drank in the majestic scene, my brother nudged at me. He pulled my shirt and tried to haul me towards the registration counter to enter the both of us in the Annual Kite-flying Competition.

With great reluctance, I tore myself away from the scene and wrote my name and contact number in bold letters on the entry form. My trusty kite, whom I named Titan, was being constructed at the competition when something cropped up. The strings were worn out and that worried me. So, I got my father to help me reattach a brand new string to it.

Meantime, the young girls apprehensively approached me.

“Ca…Can you help us?” one of them stuttered unintelligibly.

“Um… with what?” I inquired with suspicion building up.

“Our kite….snagged on a tree,” the other whispered. At this line, my suspicion melted away. They did not say anything else but pointed to a big, tall tree. My mouth fell open. Since young, I always had a phobia of heights, so this tree seemed like a huge obstacle.

Not wanting to disappoint the girls, I gulped down a ball of air, put my fears aside and grabbed a branch to help me get a headstart on the tree. The smooth surface of the tree did not make it easier. “If only….some rough bark to help me climb,” I muttered.

I hugged the tree tightly and began to clamber up the tree with my arms wrapped around it. I must have looked like a fool with my back arched like a caterpillar.

“Don’t look down!” the girls cried. Of course, I looked down in spite of their cries. Sure enough, my legs turned into jelly and my arms turned into licorice. I was hanging onto the tree for my dear life!

With the girls’ encouragement however, I continued with the slow, agonizing climb. Without even realizing it, I had reached the top with new adrenline pumping in me, I grabbed the kite and threw it at one of their arms.

I slide down the tree and was laughing victoriously. I had overcome my fear of heights! By this time, my father and brother were already beckoning me to go to them. The girls whispered a thank you before skipping away.

It was then that I realized a lens in the bushes. I walked over to it and split the bushes apart. There was a camera there! It suddenly dawned on me that they were filming a new series called “Go Fish for Samaritans!”. The kites, girls and slippery tree were all just an act!

Turning beetroot red, I turned away in a show of affected indifference, knowing that I was pranked on and they scored an upper hand on me. I trudged to my father and took over the reins of Titan, which had been struggling on to go free.

Although I had won the gold medal in the competition, I was still embarrassed by the cruel fact that I made a fool of myself. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the innocent-looking girls playing the prank again obese man. I laughed once. I could not believe that I was so shallow!

Many other people had been pranked and they did not even know about it! The moment I got back home, I picked up the television remote control and turned the programmed to Channel 5 and waited for eight o’clock to come. I might even see myself on the programme! A secret was revealed!

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Supp class this Saturday!

Dear Pupils from my class

I hope you have done your best in your EL papers today.

Keep up with the momentum for the remaining papers!

This Saturday's class is on from 0800 to 0930. Consent forms will be given to you tomorrow morning before 0715. Please get your parents to sign and return the forms to me on Friday.

Cheers
Mdm Toh

Maths Problems 7 October 09 (updated)

1. In May, 40% of the people who visited a park were children and the rest were adults.
75% of the adults were women.
In June, the number of children who visited the park increased by 1/5 and there were 336 more children than adults.
The number of adults who visited the park in June remained the same as that in May but only of the adults were women.
(a) What was the ratio of the number of children to the number of men to the number of women who visited the park in May ? (1)
(b) How many people visited the park in June ? (4)

2. At 7am, a car started travelling from Town A towards Town B at an average speed of 64km/h. At 10am, a van started travelling from Town A towards Town B at an average speed of 56km/h. By then, the car had already covered 2/5 of the entire journey.
(a) What was the distance between Town A and Town B ? (2)
(b) How far from Town A had the van travelled when the car reached Town B ? (2)

3. Ali, Ben and Charles shared the cost of a present.
The ratio of the amount paid by Ali to the total amount paid by Ben and Charles was 2 : 3
Ben’s share was 20% of the total amount paid by Ali and Charles.
Given that Charles paid $84 more than Ben, how much did the present cost? (4)

4. Tom and Jerry have some stamps. If Tom gives 160 stamps to Jerry, the ratio of the number of stamps he has to the number of stamps Jerry has is 3:2. If he gives 40 stamps to Jerry, he will have 4 times as many stamps as Jerry. How many stamps does Tom have? (3)

5. John had 600 stamps in his collection of which 20% were from Malaysia.
How many Malaysian stamps must his brother give him to increase the percentage of John’s Malaysian stamps to 36%? (3)

6. A box contained some twenty-cent and ten-cent coins in the ratio 2 : 3.
When 10 twenty-cent coins were added and 5 ten-cent coins were
removed, the ratio became 6 : 7 .
Find the sum of the money in the box at first. (3)

Monday, October 5, 2009

Maths Problems 5 October 09

1. At 9.30 a.m., Train A which was 200 m long, pulled out of Nanas Station and travelled towards Dadas Station at a uniform speed of 80 km/h. Half an hour later, Train B which was 150 m long, left Dadas Station and travelled towards Nanas Station at an uniform speed of 90 km/h.

(a) How far has Train A travelled when Train B left Dadas Station? (1m)
(b) The two trains met each other in a tunnel. Both trains took 15 minutes to be completely out of the tunnel. Calculate the length of the tunnel. (4m)

2. There were some sweets in Boxes X, Y and Z.
Box X contained 20% of the total number of sweets in Boxes X, Y and Z.
The ratio of the number of sweets in Box Y to the total number of sweets in Boxes X and Z is
2 : 1.
If there are 24 more sweets in Box Y than Box Z, find the total number of sweets in Boxes X, Y and Z. (5m)

3. John shifted the decimal point of a number twice to the left to obtain a new number. The difference between the new number and the original number was 136.62.
(a) How many times of the new number is the original number? (1m)
(b) What is the sum of the 2 numbers? (3m)

4. Mrs Kee baked some cookies and packed all the cookies in 12 small boxes and 5 big boxes.
There were equal number of cookies in each small box and equal number of cookies in each big box.
Each big box contained 14 more cookies than each small box. 18/29 of the cookies baked were packed in small boxes.
How many cookies were there in each small box? (4m)

5. Tricia has some pink, red and yellow ribbons.
1/3 of them are pink ribbons.
Four fewer than 1/3 of the remainder are red ribbons.
The remaining 24 are yellow ribbons.
How many pink ribbons does Tricia have? (3m)

6. Alice, Beth and Claire had 600 stamps altogether. After Beth had given 30 stamps to Alice, Beth had twice as many stamps as Claire and Alice had 20 stamps more than Claire. How many stamps did Claire have? (3m)

7. Last year the total age of Mr Tan and his wife is p years old.
His wife is 1 year younger than him.
What is his wife’s age 2 years from now? Express your answer in terms of p. (3m)

8. Tracy counted the number of 10-¢ coins, 20-¢ coins and 50-¢ coins in her piggy bank. The number of 10-¢ coins was 24 more than the number of 50-¢ coins. After spending 3/5 of the 10-¢ coins, 1/4 of the 20-¢ coins and 18 50-¢ coins, she had an equal number of 10-¢ and 20-¢ coins. The number of 50-¢ coins now formed 40% of the remaining number of coins
(a) How many 10-¢ coins did Tracy have at first? (3m)
(b) How much did she spend in all? (2m)

9. Ahmad and Halim together took 5 days to paint their house. If Ahmad and Halim work together for 2 days, followed by Ahmad working alone for 8 days, Halim will take 1 more day to complete the remaining work. How long will Ahmad take to paint the house all by himself? (5m)

10. Mr. Tan had 130 durians and mangosteens. After he sold 2/3 of the durians and 2/5 of the mangosteens, he had 36 more mangosteens than durians left. How many fruits had he left in all? (4m)

CW by Jing Jie (unedited)

“Hey! There is something I need to tell you about.” My closest friend Jay whispered to me as he sat beside me in the canteen.
“What?” I asked.
Jay said, “You know about the abandoned house beside our school, right? Well… today, my classmate Jackson said he saw a shadowy figure looking at him from an open window in that house.”
I nearly choked on the minced meat noodles I was eating.
“Please do not tell me your crazy idea is to….go into that house?” I stammered, pushing away my half eaten bowl of noodles.
“Well, I was going to try…but now that you know, how about this? You come along with me into the house!” He exclaimed, a foolish grin on his face. I was dumbfounded, normally kids our age would be horrified the moment they heard about the abandoned house, but Jay was as cool as a cucumber.
“Come on, it will be fun!” He coaxed. In the end, I agreed to come along with him, not wanting to be called a coward.
The wind howled and the dead leaves rustled as we walked to the abandoned house after school. Standing at the gates towering over us, I smiled weakly “ Are you sure you want to enter, no second thoughts?”
Jay scoffed, slowly pushing the gates open. Creaking, the gates shifted, groaning with each inch it moved. The terrible sound sent shivers down my spine. Stealthily, we made our way to the front gates.
Jay took a deep breath and flung the doors open, expecting to see someone, or something, only to find an empty corridor, with piles of dust everywhere. “Hello? Is…is someone there?” Jay stammered.
There was no reply, all we heard was the soft howling of the wind in the absolute silence of the house.
After exploring the first floor, we groped our way to the second floor, fascination and fear filled our hearts. We then split up to search the rooms for any sign of the figure Jackson saw.
Slowly, I made my way to the room at the very end. To my surprise, the room was spotless, with not a speck of dust present. “Strange…it should have been as dusty as others?” I muttered.
Then, a small gleam near the window caught my attention. Walking over, I saw a small stone, one that looked like the gleaming stones on Jay’s watch.
I spun around, to see Jay, grinning at me, my eyes transfixed on Jay’s watch in horror.
One of the stones was missing. Then it hit me. I stated at him and stuttered, “you…you are not…not J…. Jay.”
Jay’s grin turned into a silent smile. His smile was the only thing I saw, and the last. As I lost consciousness, and as darkness claimed me, I could swear I thought Jay was changing his form.

Friday, October 2, 2009

CW by Jiayi (unedited)

One day, the canteen was filled with the usual crowd from stall to stall. I was eating at the school canteen. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw May, my best friend, rushing towards me.

"Hey, June, I want to talk to you. It's urgent," May sat down beside me and said hurriedly. I gulped down my soup and asked, "Ok. What's the problem? "

May began her story, "Just after Mrs. Lim released us for recess, I went to the washroom and to my disbelief, I saw Linda smoking there. I tried to stop her and told her that smoking is bad for her health but she told me to stay away from her affairs and warned me not to tell anyone or else I'll pay for it. I've been worried about her. She hasn't been looking the best of health these few days."

Thinking back, Linda looked worn out and had been coughing non-stop for days. Sure enough, after recess, Linda walked past us and growled to May saying, "You better keep quiet!" May shot me a 'you-see' look and i finally believed May as Linda breath reeked of cigarette smells "Shouldn't we do anything to help her?" I asked May as soon as we sat down on our seats.

"Maybe we could confront her after school and advised her to stop smoking," May suggested. Thinking that it was the only choice we had, I agreed. Throughout the whole day, May and I were very unsettled, fearing that Linda might not listen to us. After what seemed like an eternity, the school bell finally rang. We bought our time by packing our bags slowly, waiting for Linda, as Mrs. Lim and the others went out. "Linda may be staying back to smoke again!"I whispered to May.

"Hey Linda wait!' May stopped Linda as she walked past her.

"What?!" Linda demanded,Linda looked at me and said,"You must have told her haven't you?"

"Linda,please! You've got to stop smoking! please!" I pleaded.

"I don't need your concerns!" Linda snapped at me.

"Linda please! What happened to you? Please stop all this madness! You could tell us! We will be there for you! We would help you in anyway we can!" I tried to talk some sense into her.

"I have no choice! All of you simply ignored me! I tried to ask you for help but you ignored me too! I have no choice but to resort to smoking to calm my nerves!" Linda finally spilled everything out .

A pang of guilt struck me. I thought to myself, feeling very sorry "What a failure friend I am!"

"Linda we are so sorry! We never know that we have been ignoring you!" May said to Linda. Linda smiled through her brimming tears showing that she forgave us. Because of this incident our bond with Linda became as strong as steel.

CW: Nadiah's Writing (unedited)

While I was munching on my biscuits during my break-time, I pondered about the behaviour of my best friend, Jamie. She was usually chirpy and enthusiastic but strangely today, she was very quiet and she looked as if she was guilty of doing something. She did not even want to sit with me during break-time. How weird!

All of a sudden, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I nearly choked on my biscuits. I swiveled my neck only to see a panic-stricken Jamie. At that moment my mind was clouded with many questions.

“I need to talk to you now,” Jamie whispered, there was a sense of urgency in her tone.

“Sure,” I replied with a quick nod.

Jamie pulled my hand and took me to the library, where not many students were. I was really puzzled. Why must Jamie talk to me in the library? Why not in the canteen?

“Bella, promise me you won’t tell anyone about this,” Jamie whispered again into my ears, sounding very anxious.

I nodded and gave Jamie a you-can-trust-me look.

“Bella, I…actually…stole…Rayner’s handphone…” Jamie stammered, her lips quivered a little.

I was too shocked that my mouth just flung open, but no words came out of it. My best friend just did something terribly wrong! What was I supposed to do?

“Are you sure you stole his handphone?” I asked again, still stunned by Jamie’s confession.

Jamie just nodded her head gently.

I could not believe my ears! I just could not come to terms that Jamie was a thief. Jamie, my one and only best friend, was a thief.

“Please help me! I know I’m in the wrong. I feel so guilty now…” Jamie pleaded with me, letting her tears flow down her cheeks.

I was in a dilemma. If I were to inform my teacher about this, Jamie would certainly be dealt with a severe punishment. But if I just ignored this matter, Jamie might not learn her lesson.

“Where is the handphone now,” I asked Jamie softly.

“In my schoolbag,” replied Jamie as she wiped her tears away.

I assured her everything would turn out alright and soon she stopped sobbing. Then, both of us ran back to class and we went straight to Jamie’s bag.

Jamie took out the shiny, blue, latest Nokia handphone out of her bag. I remembered that Jamie longed to have that handphone. Maybe, that was the reason Jamie stole it from Rayner.

“But, Bella, I don’t want to confess. I’m scared,” cried Jamie, trembling in fear.

But, confession was the only solution I could think of. I really pitied Jamie and I did not want to betray her. But what could I do?

Suddenly, an idea flashed through my vexed mind!

“I have a brilliant idea! Why don’t we put Rayner’s handphone back to his bag? In that way, after recess, he would find out that his handphone was actually in his bag all along!” I explained my plan excitedly to Jamie who was all ears.

After explaining, Jamie instantly got to her feet, her face brightened up. I was delighted to see Jamie back to her normal self.

When I was about to put Rayner’s handphone back into his bag, I heard a loud, creaking noise. I turned around only to see Jamie and no one else.

“What’s wrong?” Jamie asked completely puzzled.

“Wait here,” I instructed and I slowly walked to the back of the classroom, making at least no noise.

When I turned to my right, I saw Rayner squatting down behind the back door of the classroom! I nearly jumped out of my skin!

“Aha! I heard everything! I know what’s going on! I know Jamie is the one who stole my handphone! I’m going to tell Mrs. Jennifer now!” shouted Rayner at the top of his voice and glared at us.

Then, he sped off, leaving Jamie and me all alone in the classroom. Jamie broke into tears. I tried to console her but to no avail. I had assured Jamie everything would turn out alright, but it did not. But, whatever it is, I would always stand by you, Jamie. Always.