Analysis of Questions

Question A

First paragraph :
- The persona is
- shocked
- By the death of his younger brother.
- And is embarrassed that he was the eldest.
Second Paragraph :
- In Stanza 1, line 1 "I sat all morning in the college sick bay" shows that
- The speaker was shocked to study in the school after hearing the news during class
- And had sat in the sick bay while he waited for neighbour to fetch him.

Third Paragraph :
- In Stanza 2, line 2 tells us that the speaker was embarrassed
- Because he was the eldest
- and people were consolating him.

Fourth Paragraph
- Summing up the entire passage


Question B
First Paragraph :

- The writer used

- Repetition

-

Second Paragraph

- The writer used repetition

- To show that the speaker was shocked

- And everyone was trying to comfort him

- Evidence : Stanza 3 line 3 – “shake my hand”

- Stanza 4 line 3 “ held my hand”

Last Paragraph

- Sums up the entire passage

The Nanny written by Stanley

Anna the death-defying,
Anna the terror-striking.
Scared the children more than any other,
Whom the children would not have rather.

Simple things like closing windows and doors,
Made the children feel locked in cage doors.
White uniforms and spangling tights,
Imagine her and the tigers having fights.

How they wished her to be a normal nanny,
Their hopes and dreams a many.
She came from the circus,
They could not forget.

Hence they obeyed due to fright and gave respect.
How they wished she was friendly,
Making her sound and not look scary.

Life Is Fine by Langston Hughes

The poem
I went down to the river,
I set down on the bank.
I tried to think but couldn't,
So I jumped in and sank.

I came up once and hollered!
I came up twice and cried!
If that water hadn't a-been so cold
I might've sunk and died.

But it was Cold in that water! It was cold!

I took the elevator
Sixteen floors above the ground.
I thought about my baby
And thought I would jump down.

I stood there and I hollered!
I stood there and I cried!
If it hadn't a-been so high
I might've jumped and died.

But it was High up there! It was high!

So since I'm still here livin',
I guess I will live on.
I could've died for love--
But for livin' I was born

Though you may hear me holler,
And you may see me cry--
I'll be dogged, sweet baby,
If you gonna see me die.

Life is fine! Fine as wine! Life is fine!

Answers
1) A lot of Figurative Languages have been used in this poem. "hollered", "It was cold" and "It was high" are hyperbole as they are exaggerated statements. The poet chose to used this kind of figurative language to show how loud he screamed, how cold the water was and how tall the building was. "Life is fine! Fine as wine!" is a metaphor.The poet chose to used it as he is comparing life to wine.

2) I like this poem as it talks about a man, having problems and tries to kill himself by jumping off a tall building and drowning himself in cold water. In the forth paragraph, it showed me how someone can feel after being in love, then getting dumped and how deep it hurts the person. In the end, he realised that his problems were not as bad as dying and thought of how fine life was in "Life is fine! Fine as wine! Life is fine!" This poem tells me that life has all the miseries to pull us down but when we want to give up, it gives us power to stand up again. Everything in life has a reason. We have to face the miseries and understand failure to succeed in life.

10 Differences between Rural Society and Urban Society

1)People in Rural Society receive less educated than people in Urban Society.

2)People in Rural Society receive a lower income than people in Urban Society.

3)People in Rural Society do not have electronics, while people in Urban Society have electronics.

4)People in Rural Society travel on bullock carts, while people in Urban Society travel in buses and cars.

5)Men in Rural Society are treated with higher respect, while people in Urban Society are treated equally.

6)There are higher crime rates in Rural Society than in Urban Society.

7)There are more nature and greenary in Rural Society than in Urban Society.

8)There is less pollution in Rural Society than in Urban Society.

9)It is less noisy in Rural Society than in Urban Society.

10)Rural Society are less populated than Urban Society.

10 Similarities between Rural Society and Urban Society

1)Both the Rural and Urban Societies have an education system.

2)Both the Rural and Urban Societies have jobless and poor people.

3)Both the Rural and Urban Societies have cheaters.

4)Both the Rural and Urban Societies have rich people.

5)Both the Rural and Urban Societies have tough jobs.

6)Both the Rural and Urban Societies have kind people.

7)Both the Rural and Urban Societies have people who pick on others.

8)Both the Rural and Urban Societies have sources of income.

9)Both the Rural and Urban Societies have harsh living conditions.

10)Both the Rural and Urban Societies have recreational activities.

Prefixes Worksheet

Re-
-Again/ back to

Refurnish
-To provide or supply again

Refurbish
-To renovate

Reuse
-To employ for some purpose/ put into service again

Restore
-To bring back to a former, original or normal condition

Recover
-To heal again or anew

Rebound
-To bound or spring back from force of impact
-To recover from discouragement

Redouble
-To double/ make twice as great

Recondition
-To restore to a good or satisfactory condition/ repair/ make over

Regain
-To get again
-To succeed in reaching again/ get back to

Rearrange
-To place in proper/ desired/ convenient order/ adjust properly


1. He recovered from his ill health.
2. The students rearranged their tables and chairs.
3. Tim reused the piece of paper as he was environmentally friendly.
4. The ball rebounded away from the board.
5. He redoubled his efforts and finally scored full marks in his test.
6. He regained his energy after resting for a while.
7. Tiger Woods restored his status as the Golfing Champion.
8. He refurbished his apartment.
9. He refurnished his shop.
10. Thorough safety checks are carried on every reconditioned stair lifts.

Village By The Sea Questions

Question B. What parts of the book are ignored in the fairy tale pattern?

Answer:The parts of the story where Hari leaves his home and goes to Bombay to find work, where he meets Jagu, Mr Panwallah and other people and the part where he earns some money and returns home to Thul and decides to start a watch mending shop and a poultry farm.

Question C. The Village by the Sea has also been described as an adventure story. How far do you agree with this description? Why?

Answer:I agree that Village By the Sea is described as an adventure story as it is about how Hari, who initially goes to Bombay to protest, and decides to stay there to find work. He faces many hardships and meets different types of people. Later, he gets to work in a restaurant and a watch mending shop called "Ding Dong Watchworks". In the end, he earns enough money to go home and start a business. The story is also about Lila, a surrogate mother, who takes care of her family back in the village. Her dog, Pinto, has just died and Hari had left in a boat to Bombay, which leaves her back at the village with only her sick mother, drunk father and Kamal and Bela. She receives help from the De Silva, who sent her mother to the hospital for medication and treatment. They also gave Lila a job, which earned some money. In the end, her father stop drinking toddy and her mother was cured of her illness.

Fairy Tale Pattern-Cinderella

Protagonist in unhappy situation==>Cinderella was forced to do all the household chores that her evil stepmother gave her and had to listen to every request of her stepsisters. She was also treated very badly by them.

The situation worsens==>One day, the King decided to have a ball for his son, the Prince,to find a wife. Everyone in the Kingdom was invited, however Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters did not allow her to go and made her do more chores.

Protagonist receives unexpected help, usually of a magical nature==>Cinderella's fairy godmother took pity on her and appeared in front of her.Cinderella told her fairy godmother her troubles and that she wanted to dance with the prince. The fairy godmother immediately cast a spell and changed a pumpkin into a carriage, Cinderella's cat into a butler and her torn shirt into a beautiful gown. However, the spell would only last until midnight.

Protagonist is rescued from initial unhappy situation==>When she was dancing with the Prince, she suddenly realised that the time was going to reach midnight. As she did not want the Prince to see her in her tattered and torn shirt and leave a bad impression, she hurriedly ran back to her carriage and was driven back to her stepmother's house. She had accidentally dropped a glass slipper when she was running down the steps. The Prince found the slipper and went around the kingdom to fit the slipper into the girls' feet, to find out which girl did he dance with at the ball. In the end, he found out the Cinderella was the one and they lived happily ever after.

Fairy Tale Pattern-Village by The Sea

Protagonist in a unhappy situation==>Hari's father was addicted to toddy and his mother had fallen ill. As a result, Hari and Lila has to become the surrogate father and surrogate mother to work and to do the household chores and take care of Bela and Kamal.

The situation worsens==>The factory was going to be built up and would take up the space of the farmlands and cause pollution. One of the three Khanekar brothers also demanded that Hari's father return him his money, borrowed by Hari's father to buy toddy. He also poisoned Pinto, their family dog.

Protagonist receives unexpected help, usually of a magical nature==>The watchman at the Seabird, Hira Lal, brought him to Jagu's restaurant to work. He was also offered a job as a watch mender from Mr Panwallah, who owned "Ding Dong Watchworks". He was offered some money to buy a postcard to write on and send it home to his family.

Protagonist is rescued from initial unhappy situation==>Mr Panwallah gives him some money to return home and he finds out that his father was not a drunkard anymore and that his mother had recovered from her illness.

The Amish

Philosophy
The Amish are a Protestant anti-modernist religious group founded in the 1690s by Jakob Ammann. Ammann was able to attract followers from among the Mennonites in Switzerland, Holland and Germany-in an attempt to conserve some of the early traditions of Mennonites. In the early 1700s they began to immigrate to the United States where their communities thrived.

Today, Amish live in rural areas, refuse to use electricity and other modern things, and dress very plainly. In addition with trying to live as close as possibly to the ways of members of the early Christian church, the Amish also follow a practice introduced by Ammann known as "shunning". If a member of the group fails to follow the rules, they are to be ostracized by everyone in the group, including family, children and their spouse.

Education
The Amish believe strongly in education, but only provide formal education through the eighth grade and only in their own private schools (one-room schools). The Amish are exempt from state compulsory attendance beyond the eighth grade based on religious principles, the result of a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. One-room Amish schools are private institutions, operated by Amish parents. Schooling concentrates on the basic reading, writing, math and geography, along with vocational training and socialization in Amish history and values. Education is also a big part of home life, with farming and homemaking skills considered an important part of an Amish child's upbringing.

Over the years, studies of academic achievement have found that Amish schoolchildren often fared better on standardized tests than their public school counterparts. This finding shocked professional teachers, who scoffed at the idea that a teacher with an eighth grade education, operating in a one room schoolhouse devoid of electricity and heat could teach more effectively than highly technological school districts. In reality, the reasons for Amish schools' success are related to the fact that they do not have such highly technological equipment, and must rely on human and community power. Amish schools actually serve to strengthen and perpetuate that power by teaching the importance of community to their children. In doing so, the school provides students with not only factual knowledge, but also a firm understanding of societal values as taught by the teacher, strengthened by student interaction, and as shown by the community.

Work
Agriculture has always been a major part of the Amish lifestyle. Believing that practical knowledge, hard work and long hours are the marvels that make farm life fruitful, the Amish practice impressive levels of thrift and self-sufficiency. Farming provides a seedbed for nurturing strong families in the values of hard work, frugality, responsibility, simplicity and family cooperation. Horses are also trademark identities of the Amish and their farming, used to plow, cultivate and harvest crops. Tractors are commonly used on Amish farms, but only for power around the barn - to blow silage to the top of large silos, power feed grinders, spin ventilating fans and the like, but are not used for field work. Wagons, corn planters, plows and sprayers are permitted on the fields to increase productivity, as long as they are adapted for horse-drawn use.

Recreation
The Amish women have been making quilts since 1800. Most of the time a lot of women get together and make quilts. These women do it for relaxation and to socialize with each other. It is also a time to get together and catch up on gossip.However in the 1900-2000, they do it for an income,which has turned into a business. Many Amish women have also set up shops in their home for the family’s income. On the yards of their homes, some of them have signs that says: Quilts sold here, no Sunday sale.

My Opinion
I feel that they are Eco-friendly and are helping by not further polluting the Earth. Other communities should learn their culture so that there will be less production of green-house gases. However, the pleasures that we have will be gone. So there will be no Television, no Computer and games, no Hand phones and no electronic game machines. Worst of all, we will be unable to message each other using emails and can only use post.

Lamb to the Slaughter-Singaporean's View

Mary Maloney: Innocent?
It is hard to believe that Mrs. Mary Maloney, gentle and outspoken young woman, would murder her husband, Mr. Patrick Maloney, senior and chief detective. After all, they had been a loving couple since they were married and was going to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary that day. Mrs. Mary Maloney did all of her household chores as usual and sat on her chair lovingly, waiting for her beloved husband to come home, like any faithful wife would do. She even prepared a glass of whiskey for him as she knew that day would be the most grueling day at work for her husband.
When her husband reached home and opened the door, she stood up and kissed him affectionally and hung his coat for him and watched as he drank half of the strong whiskey in his glass in one go and then drank the remaining whiskey in the glass. At that time, Mary saw his glass was empty and decided to refill his glass with more whiskey for him. Even though Patrick asked her to sit down as he wanted to refill the glass himself, Mary, being a caring wife, still stood up and offered to help him as she wanted him to rest and relax more. After Patrick had drank up his second glass, he signaled for Mary to sit beside him. That day, since Patrick had arrived at home, he was acting strangely and Mary had noticed his behavior but would not have guessed that Patrick was going to leave her. After she heard this, she was very sad but finally recovered and decided to make a lamb leg, Patrick’s favourite meat, for dinner. The thought of Patrick leaving her hurt her feelings, but after all, she wanted the last dinner with Patrick to be perfect and did not want him to be starved from work. As she placed the lamb leg into the oven, she suddenly remembered that the toppings that went with the leg of lamb was missing and decided to visit Sam the grocer to buy some food. At the grocery, Mary bought the toppings for the leg of lamb and even bought Patrick’s favourite cheesecake.
As she reached home, she was shocked to see Patrick lying on the floor, with blood flowing out from a wound on his head, breathless. She cried her heart out as she still loved him very much although he left her. She quickly dialed for the police and they arrived within minutes. After the thorough search, the detectives still did not find the killer and the murder weapon. As the hours go by, they became weary and hungry. Mary, being a kind woman, immediately offered the leg of lamb and some of the leftover whiskey for them to drink and rest for a while. After offering the leg of lamb to the detectives, Mary went back to her bedroom saw their wedding picture and was reminded of how much he loved her. She started crying and covered the weeping sound with pillows as she did not want the policemen to hear them and stop resting to comfort her. The police might have mistaken those crying sounds as giggling and arrested her for committing the murder as there was no evidence to anyone else committing the crime and Mary was the top suspect. Poor Mary, it’s not her fault, after all, she wouldn’t even hurt a fly.
Written by:
Alexander Nicolas (01)
Bryan Soon (03)
Lim Dae Koon (16)
Yuan Xinran Stanley (31)

The story of Little Ironies

"Boom!" The thunder roared angrily and the lightning flashed across the dark sky. He was sitting down quietly in his jail cell, filled with remorse about killing his only daughter. He could not stop thinking about how badly he treated his family members: his wife and his daughter. He came home drunk and angry everyday. He was doing very well at banking, but when the stock market started to decline, he was fired from his job. Ever since, he came home grumpy and drunk.
He used to be a kind and caring father. He always brought home sweets and chocolates for his daughter and dresses and jewellery for his wife. After getting fired, he became the opposite of what he used to be. He caned and assaulted his wife and daughter and beat them up until they bled and had bruises all over their body. His neighbours saw him attacking his wife and daughters, but never did a thing, afraid that they would get beaten or tortured too.
He remembered the time when his daughter, Tan Goek Peng, came home with a F9 result for her A levels examination. He was already in a bad mood that day, after getting fined by the police for drink driving, and after hearing of the bad news, his hopes of letting his daughter go to a University were shattered. He beat his daughter until he knocked her unconscious, but he still kept on punching and beating her. His wife saw him brutally attacking her daughter, immediately rushed up and tried to prevent him from doing more damage. After trying for many times, he stopped beating her and stomped out of the house to the Toddy house.
The next morning, as his wife approached her daughters bed and wanted to wake her up for school, she noticed that she was not breathing. She quickly rushed to the phone and dialed for the ambulance, which arrived in minutes and brought the body to the hospital. Her daughter, who was already so weak, was proclaimed dead while on the ride to the hospital. Her father, upon hearing this, was filled with grief and remorse.
He was charged with manslaughter and was sent to jail for two years. He reflected on his behaviour and promised to treat his wife, the only one left in the family, better as he did not want the same thing to happen to him again

Lamb to the Slaughter-Singapore Free Press

Singapore Free Press

WHEN A DIVORCE GOES WRONG: MEN, BEWARE

A wife kills her husband after he breaks the news.

Mrs. Mary Maloney has been arrested for murder after brutally bashing up her husband to death. Her husband, Mr. Patrick Maloney, returned home after work and drank two glasses of whisky to calm himself down before breaking the news to his wife. He explained carefully that he would give her alimony and support her and the baby in her womb. Mary, being a greedy and selfish person, wanted all the money for herself and started planning Patrick’s murder in order to claim his 1.5 million dollars life insurance and all of his money. She then hatched a plan and started to carry it out.

Mary Maloney pretended to make dinner for her husband. She went to the freezer and took out a frozen leg of lamb; after all, no one would suspect food to be a murder weapon. She then went back up from the basement, and to her joy, found Patrick Maloney glaring out the window. She then took the leg of lamb and crept up to him stealthily. With one heavy swing, Mary hit her husband on his head and sent him to his grave. She then put the lamb into the oven so that she could act ‘natural’. This was phase one of her plan. She went to the grocer acting normal, to create an alibi. She came home and pretended to cry as she saw her husband on the floor. In her heart, she was actually smiling happily. She called her husband’s friends, which were detectives and they arrived shortly and examined the crime scene. Mary told them that she came home from the grocer only to find her husband dead and tried to make the detectives less attentive by letting them drink whisky.

Mary Maloney also managed to make them eat the leg of lamb that she used to kill her husband. When the detectives were finishing the last bits of the meat, they heard a soft giggling sound. Fortunately, they soon realized Mary’s sinister plot and arrested her. Her cruelty wasn’t going to go unpunished. She was brought to court and was found guilty and sentenced to death. She was given five months, three months for giving birth to the baby and two months to breastfeed the baby. She will be hung 8 weeks later in front of the public at 12 noon.

Written by:

Alexander Nicolas (01) 1P3

Bryan Soon (3) 1P3

Lim Dae Koon (16) 1P3

Yuan Xinran Stanley (31) 1P3

Avatar the movie

10 Questions on Avatar
1. Why can't the humans convert the unbreathable air in Pandora into oxygen?
2. What happens to the "dragon" that the main character rides after he jumps off its body and starts to control the rook?
3. Why are the Pandorians so spiritual?
4. How do the Pandorians grow so tall?
5. Why don't the humans use cruise missiles or long-range missiles to destroy the scared tree?
6. Are there the 4 seasons on Pandora?
7. If the humans can master space travel, why haven't their wood cutting technologies improve?
8. Where do the humans get their electricity to power their spaceships and buildings?
9. What do the humans need the uranium for?
10. If man can turn humans into Avatars, why can't they just turn the Pandorians into humans?

Thoughts/ Feelings about Avatar
I feel that Avatar has a mind boggling story line. In the beginning, I did not understand what the story is about until the main character was sent on a undercover mission and act as one of the Pandorians in his Avatar. I did not understand why the humans were trying to do at the start and also why the Pandorians kept using the term "Eywa" until near the end of the movie, where I finally understood that it was referring to the wise spirits in Pandora. I could only fully understand this movie near the end. I feel that this movie is a little bit far-fetched as travelling to another solar system takes a few hundered light years so it will take a very long time for humans to master space travel and i feel bad for the humans who were defeated when they are sent back to the near-dead Earth(after men's act of pollution and deforestion) as I think that the general of the army is the only "bad guy" and that the other soldiers are only listening to his command, so they should be given the choice of returning or staying.

Percy Jaclson and the Lightning thief

10 differences between book and movie:
1. In the movie, the pen transformed into riptide, a sword, when Percy clicked the pen. However in the book, the pen transformed into riptide only when Percy uncapped the pen.
2. In the movie, Percy, Annabeth and Grover searched around the United States to find the three pearls. Whereas in the book, the three pearls were given to Percy by a Nereid, a spirit of the sea.
3. In the movie, Luck placed the bolt into the shield he gave to Percy. But in the book, Ares placed the bolt into the bag pack which he gave to Percy.
4. In the movie, a fire-breathing hydra attacked Percy at his second destination. However in the book, Echidna and the Chimera attacked Percy at his second destination.
5. In the movie, Hades sent his monsters after Percy to get Zeus Master Bolt. Whereas in the book, Hades sent his monsters to retrieve his Helm of Darkness.
6. In the movie, Percy captured the red team's flag after defeating Annabeth and some of the red team. But in the book, Luke captured the flag when Percy was fighting the sons and daughters of Ares.
7. In the movie, three black dogs guarded the mansion of Hades. However in the book, a three-headed dog guarded the entrance to the underworld.
8. In the movie, Luke stole Zeus Master Bolt and Hades Helm of Darkness as he wanted a war among the gods as he disliked his father and wanted a change in the gods' ruling. Whereas in the book, Luke stole Zeus Master Bolt in order to make the gods fight with one another and become weak, thus allowing his master, Kronos to rise again.
9. In the movie, the Minotaur's horn snapped off when it struck a tree and tried to pull itself out, resulting one of its horns to get broken. But in the book, Percy pulled out one of its horns when he was riding on the Minotaur's neck.
10. In the movie, Percy, Annabeth and Grover kept Medusa's head by wrapping it in a jacket. However in the book, Percy mailed Medusa's head in a delivery box and sent it to the Olympians.

My Thoughts/ Feelings about Percy Jackson and the Lightning thief:
I liked reading the book more than watching the movie because there are more descriptors and is more detailed than in the movie. I also preferred the first-person point of view in the book to the third person point of view in the movie, as allows the reader to concentrate fully on the main character rather than concentrate on every person in the fantasy.
I liked the part when Percy, Annabeth and Grover going to the Underworld and meeting a three-headed dog, Cerberus, guarding the entrance to the Underworld. As Cerberus starts to decide that he's hungry and is going to eat them, Annabeth pulls out a red rubber ball and to Percy's and Grover's surprise, Cerberus becomes an obedient dog as he is attracted by the ball. I like this part because it shows a good and cute side of a fierce and scary three-headed dog. This tells us that no matter where you are, everyone, including monsters, need a little attention once in a while.

Little Ironies-SCAMPER

My group(group4) has chosen the tittles of "The Father" and "The Teacher". As a Substitute, we have replaced Mui Mui in "The Father" with Tan Goek Peng, a girl in the story of "The teacher". As for Combine, we have brought together the plots of "The Father" and "The Teacher". As for Adapt, the father was filled with remorse after beating his daughter up to death after she scored a F9 for her composition. Lastly, for Modify, we have changed the setting to a modern day house and made the father bigger and stronger.

The dangers of blogging and how to prevent it

Nowadays, people blog more and more often. But sometimes when you publish a post, it might result to some unintended consequences.
Some people who you become "friends" with may not really be who they claim they are. They may be people who want to harm or steal from you and your family members. When you publish personal information like your name, age, adress, telephone numbers and more, you are increasing the chances of something bad happening. When you post provocative photos of yourself, you might be more foolhardy than flirtatious. Also, you do not know who is looking at your words or pictures, so remember not to publish personal, identifying information and you should never completely trust the people whom you meet online.
Secondly, things that you publish might follow you for a long time after your high school or college experience ends as many people are already affected by what they wrote and posted years ago. So before you publish your post, be smart and think how much information you really want others to know about you and ask yourself if it is really something you want to become a part of your online record.
Finally, remember that although you have the right to use and update your blogs, you do not have the right to use them in ways that defame, threaten or harass others. Sometimes despite your best efforts, it is very unlikely that whatever you publish online will stay private, which means that even words written in jest may be punishable by the law.
Blogs might be places where you can make friends and learn. They might also be places to think, reflect, to dream and to plan. But like anything else, you have to learn to use them effectively, appropriately and safely.