ho.ller (n.) :a very loud utterance

cny goodies

January 31, 2008 at 9:13 am (essays) (essays)

‘Tis the season we see red; red lanterns, red packets, red banners, and copious amounts of red on your essays.  For too many Chinese New Years, we have been giving in to the sinful indulgence of downing cny goodies that add bulk to our waists. This year, why not supplement our mental diets instead? Thus, behold my cny gift to all of you – 3 great essays from 3 of your English-inclined classmates! (I know, it’s the best gift anyone has given you on cny. You’re all welcome.) 

The essays are not perfect, but are rather well-written and deserving of praise. If you have nothing constructive to say, remember this great advice someone great once said: “If you don’t know what to say, say something nice.”   

 Preservation   
by Yu Xuan

Long ago, food that was planted or hunted must be eaten in a few days or weeks. Food will rot easily if they were not eaten in a short while. However few hundreds years ago, people have found ways to preserve food.Those who lived in the North or South Pole kept their prey packed in ice.

This method of preservation is known as freezing. It will make the food last longer as when the food is packed in ice, air cannot enter the food and it will not rot so easily. Freezing can only be used in the poles, so people living far away from the poles could not use this method. Instead, they used the drying method.

Drying requires a lot of heat from the sun. Vegetables, fish, cuttlefish and other food are laid open in strong sunlight for hours to dry up the water content. This helps the people a lot as during winter, when vegetables are not harvested, vegetables preserved in the sun can be eaten.

Preservatives like chilli, garlic or pepper can also be used to keep the food fresh. When these are added to the food, it kills all the bacteria so the germs cannot feed on it.

As technology improved, canning was invented. This method was to cook the food and place it inside an air-tight container. To keep the air out of the container, the can containing food was put inside a steamer and boiled to a degree of 128 degree Celsius. The high temperature will kill all the bacteria as well as removing the air particles. This method is widely used up to now. It is a good way as can food can be brought out to anywhere and does not require cooking. 

The refrigerator was also invented to keep food fresh. Food is kept in low temperatures from ten to minus ten degree Celsius. It is a little different from packing it in ice. Meats are usually kept in the coldest compartment while vegetables and other food are kept in the lower compartment. The vegetables will still be fresh and will not lose its nutrients, unlike when preserved via drying. It does not need thawing when taken out and can be eaten immediately. The food will also taste nicer.

There are many kinds of preservation methods. All of them share one similar function, which is to make the food last longer. Whichever method has helped mankind a lot. Some methods are more widely used now such as the refrigerator, which can be found in almost every household now.

 Is modern technology a curse or a blessing? By Sharafina 

In the times we live in, technology is a common commodity. We are bound to see it in use almost everywhere from our homes to our schools to offices. We also often carry around technology in the forms of electronic gadgets such as mobile phones, palm pilots and MP3 players. Technology proves to be a useful and important thing in our lives. However, technology can be used to do good or evil as the user chooses. Hence, does technology stand as a blessing or a curse? I for one think that technology is a blessing to a greater extent. The following are points to support my stand.  

Firstly, technology helps to make the world a smaller place. Today we have communication devices to contact people from around the world such as telephones and mobile phones to web cameras and instant messaging on the internet. We can even watch a live television programmes or a sports match happening on the other side of the globe from the comforts of our own homes because of the satellites which transmit these programmes to our televisions and computers. Hence technology plays an important part in connecting the world. 

The second is that technology makes us live more comfortably. We do not have to do as much housework as older generations did because of the invention of appliances like washing machines and microwave ovens. Furthermore we can still enjoy a cool environment despite our tropical climate as there are air conditioners, a common sight in homes, shopping centres and offices. So technology does make life easier and more comfortable.   Other than that, technology also helps to increase efficiency in offices. Information can be retrieved easily as there are fax machines and e-mail to send work documents over. Also, the output of office workers will be much higher as they can accomplish tasks more quickly; employees can access the internet to research for information, type the document and send it to their in-charge in a short period of time via e-mail. Hence, technology is useful in offices to boost work efficiency. 

Another important point is that technology can be put to use to resolve many problems or improve the quality of life and as a consequence, help many people. Medical scientists are putting technology to work in developing vaccinations and cures for illnesses such as avian flu or even cancer. Nutritional scientists are also working with technology to create genetically modified foods which would pack in more nutrition so as to alleviate malnutrition and nutrient deficiency in the poorer regions of the world. Technology is even used in solving crimes as forensic investigators are able to derive possible suspects from a strand of hair or even a shoe print. Thus technology is very important in discovering new solutions to help solve or alleviate our problems.  

Furthermore, technology is also used to improve teaching methods in schools. Nowadays, schools are making use of IT and learning softwares in lessons to make classes more innovative. Some schools also have interactive whiteboards in classrooms so that teachers can present concepts more clearly. Not only does technology prove to improve teaching methods, it also goes along with Singapore’s ‘Teach Less, Learn More’ campaign. 

In some instances, technology can be taken advantage of and abused. Some countries use technology to create weapons and nuclear weapons for war purposes. This sort of purpose does not serve to benefit anyone other that to kill and destroy the livelihood of innocent people. Hence, this point illustrates that when technology is abused, disastrous consequences will occur. 

However, I still do not find that technology is a curse as the above point shows that technology was misused for evil purposes. Therefore, I conclude that technology is more of a blessing than a curse and that the disastrous repercussions of technology are instead the impact of men’s abuse of it for malicious intentions. 

  Describe two sports that you consider to be dangerous

By Chrisye

Waves of heat radiating from one’s body, trapped inside a jacket. Wind whistling past at cutting speed. Falling snow slamming against one’s goggles. Snowboarding is one of the most thrilling yet dangerous forms of sports. Feet bound to a wooden semi-metallic board, one would find himself surrounded by fields of white. Snowboarding, the sport expected to replace skiing in the future, is a sport I consider dangerous.

One, after a few seasons of experience, would find himself strapped onto a board as tall as himself. With nothing but plastic straps holding you down, professional boarders would boldly dive down a slope almost 90 degrees perpendicular to the ground. Flexing their knees and constantly applying pressure to their heels and toes, they flash down the slope making an endless ‘s’. In the absence of safety gear of any sort, some even attempt to perform stunts and flips on such gravity defying circumstances.

Having been to several ski resorts myself, I have seen countless injuries as a result of failed stunt attempts. Broken backs, twisted ankles, fractured wrists, dislocated elbows; any injury one can even think of can possibly happen during snowboarding. However, I do not blame them for standing right back up and hitting the slopes again, because the feeling one gets while snowboarding is simply irresistible.

The second sport I would like to describe does not only cause injuries, but even deaths. Kilometers above sea level, several groups of people strap on their parachutes and leap off a plane. Spreading their limbs like wings, with wind gushing towards them, Parachuters can barely open their eyes, and the howling wind deafens their hearing. The breath-taking view may overcome any fear but it does not erase the fact that sky-diving is another sport that is very dangerous.

Free falling from the sky, sky divers’ lives depend solely on their parachutes. After falling several kilometers, they would activate their parachutes and drift slowly like a feather back to the ground. Should anything go wrong with such a procedure, nothing but death awaits these brave souls. Despite such risks, sky divers still continue to do what they do best.

These are just two of the many dangerous sports in the world. Nothing but an exhilarating, thrilling passion for sports and a heart of steel stand between these sportsmen and an ordinary man.        

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