A.C.T.S Essay Competition 32nd theme:Bad Habits

Let's put our hands together and welcome the 32nd theme:BAD HABITS.

Entry opens on 28/6/2014 and closes on 11/7/2014

Send your best essay in less than 1000 words before 11/7/2014 to "iloveessay@gmail.com"

Extension

Greetings to all aspiring writers!

How have your June holidays been so far? Due to vacation period, we will be extending the submission date for the BETRAYAL theme to 27 June 2014.

Send in your best essay before 27 June 2014 to "iloveessay@gmail.com".

Winners of 30th theme:WEATHER

1st: Carrie Tam, 14, TKGS

Weather

I am a loyal friend who is willing to grow with you, go through good and bad times with you and be there for you all the time.

I am everywhere. I can be found at grassy fields, nourishing dry lands, watering growing flowers, admiring life, the universe and everything. When they need me, I will quietly come down, make them all soaking wet, and then hide away in fits of giggles…

The living things that I enjoy observing the most are humans. This is because they are from all walks of life and have different stories to tell.

When I see the romantic scenes when lovers are together, I will fall down from the sky gently and softly, careful of not making any noise, so that I can eavesdrop the sweet words exchanged between them.

When I see a girl crying piteously because her romantic relationship has ended, I will dance around her at a loss, hoping that I could soothe her soul.

When I see cold-hearted parents abandoning their child cruelly, I will pound onto the ground lividly, loud and clear, in the hope that I can pound awake the conscience of that pair of parents.

When I see a harmonious family, I will cleverly hide away, and let the Sun to take my position, allowing her to warm that family.

Sometimes, when I am tired, I will just drop into the rivers, travelling in the “public bus” towards the vast blue sea. When lying in the river, I will look up at the sky, and unconsciously going to sweet dreams. When I am awake, I will return to the sky, staring down at the mother earth, looking for the next location to rest at.

My life seems beautiful and carefree, but actually it is not. I always feel very lonely, and have few friends whom I can actually talk to. I don’t dare to be near the Sun because he is scorching hot; Neither do I like the moon because he seems too cold. All I can do every day is to help the flowers and trees to grow and observe the lives of humans.

Until one day, I met the Cloud…he is gentle and understanding, and accepts everything that I am. No matter how playful and mischievous I am, he will always watch me quietly and wait for my return patiently. He observes humans with me and have reflections on their lives with me. He can help to overcome all my difficulties and fears, and as days pass by, I find that I become more reliant on him and we cannot leave each other anymore.

I changed. I do not like the trees and flowers anymore; I no longer observe humans. I prefer to float in the air with the Cloud, and not care about other things. At that point of time, I only indulge in a life of pleasure and comfort, however not knowing that I had done the biggest error in my life.

Until one day, my father, the God, gives me a good dressing down. He ordered me that I can only meet with the Cloud one hour before I reach the earth. I don’t understand why my father will do that to me, and kicked up a big fuss. But my father only left me with one sentence:”You look at what you have done yourself.”

The once fast-flowing rivers are drying up, the crops are dying in the hot sun, people are facing hunger almost everywhere. i watched these with tear-filled eyes, feeling like there are thousand knives piercing through my heart.

Short meetings with the Cloud do not reduce my reliance on him. When I am in the rives, I look up at him; when I am a vapour, I encircle around him; when I fall from the sky, I think of him. Although I am not as happy as before, but I feel that my life has become more meaningful.

I will work harder at fulfilling my task from today onwards and silently vow that I will not let the humans down again, but I also hope that you can understand me, enjoy me and admire me…

After all these being said, I forget to introduce myself.

My name is Rain, a trustworthy friend who will be there for you. Always.

2nd: Liu Kim

Weather

Weather is the state of the atmosphere,to the degree that it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy.Weather, seen from an anthropological perspective.There are socially and scientifically constructed understandings of what weather is, what makes it change, what effects it has on humans in different situations etc. Weather generally refers to day-to-day temperature and activity, whereas climate that is the term for the average atmospheric conditions over longer periods of time.[When used without qualification, “weather”, is generally understood to mean the weather of Earth.

Weather is driven by air pressure differences between one place and another. These pressure and temperature differences can occur due to the sun angle at any particular spot, which varies by latitude from the. The strong temperature contrast between polar and tropical air gives rise to the jet stream. Weather systems in themed-latitudes.As the Earth’s axis is tilted relative to its orbital plane, which is incident at different angles at different times of the year. On Earth’s surface, temperatures usually range ±40 °C  annually. Over thousands of years, changes in Earth’s obit affect the amount and distribution of solar energy received by the Earth and influence long-term climate and global climate change.

Surface temperature differences in turn cause pressure differences. Higher altitudes are cooler than lower altitudes due to differences in compressional heating. Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a future time and a given location. The system is a chaotic system ; so small changes to one part of the system can grow to have large effects on the system as a whole. Human attempts to control the weather have occurred throughout human history, and there is evidence that human activity such as agriculture and industry has modified weather patterns.

3rd: Su Qi, 15, TKGS

Rain

It was raining outside. I sat beside my window in my room, watching the annoying bad weather. I didn’t like rainy days, actually, I hated them. During these days, I could not go out and play, I could not enjoy the golden sunshine shining on me, I only felt cold and wet.

It was a Sunday afternoon and I was doing my revision for my final year exam. However the sound of the rain made me cannot remember anything. I was so angry and throw my books away, stood up and open my window. I put my arms outside the window; I waved them in the rain, trying to get it away, to ask it to return my peaceful Sunday afternoon. The rain was not very heavy, it was drizzling. It was not like the rain in Singapore, heavy but straightforward. The rain was as shy as a traditional Chinese woman, keeps all her emotion inside her brittle heart. The small raindrops drop on my arms, cooled me down. The cold air rushed into my room, dispersed the stuffy air.

This sense is not familiar to me, I had never opened my windows when it was raining before. I closed my eyes, trying to feeling the raindrops. They were so tiny, and cool. They dropped on my arms, gave me a temporary coldness and soon became warm because of my body temperature. I put my head outside the window also and breathe. Some raindrops also enter my nose with the cool air, cooling my trachea, my lung, and my whole body, disperse my anxiety towards my coming exam. “The rain seemed not to be so annoying!” I said to myself.

I could see my community from my window. The rain gave the world a silk quilt, made it look mysterious. It was so beautiful! I suddenly forgot that how I used to hate the rain. The rain itself was not annoying; I hate it just because I didn’t know how to find beautiful things in my life, in the world around me. Everything has pros and cons; we need to focus more on the wonderful things. Why? Because we cannot change the world, sometimes, we have to accept the things that make us angry. How? By finding their beautiful sides, by learning to love them. If we cannot do that, we will be angry and upset all the time. Whether I can spend my life happily or not, depending on how I treat the things in my life.

Half a year ago, I came to Singapore. I gave up everything I used to have: family, friends, honor, and of course, the gentle and magnificent rain in my hometown in the central part of China. Raining days are very common in Singapore. Here, the rain is unconstrained, no one can bond them. I miss the rain in China a lot, miss its softness, and miss its shyness. Now, the rain is not just rain anymore, it contains homesickness. I really hope that I can be a small raindrop, free and happy, running back to my hometown. However, I also know that I have no choice but to work hard in Singapore. Once the raindrop drops into the soil, it can never go back to the sky unless it suffers from evaporation to become water vapor, then, it can rise and go back. For me, I have to work hard because I don’t have a bridge of gold. I have to be good, to achieve my goal, and go back with honor and achievement.

I really like rainy days, though I used to hate them. They can remind me of my home town, remind me that what is my goal, encourage me to work hard. Maybe, someday, I will miss the rain in Singapore.

A.C.T.S Essay Competition 31st theme:Betrayal

Greeting to all writers!

The 31st theme BETRAYAL is offically released.

 

Submission of essay opens on 7th June and closes on 20th 

June.

Send in your entry to "iloveessay@gmail.com"

A.C.T.S Essay Writing Competition 30th theme:Weather

Great day to all aspiring writers,

the 30th theme of A.C.T.S Essay Writing Competition is now 
released. 

Opens 24/5/2014 and closes on 6/6/2014
Send in your best essay in less than 1000 words to 

"iloveessay@gmail.com" before 6/6/2014

Winners of 29th theme:My pets...my best friend

1st: Simran Ketan Rathod, 15, Tanjong Katong Girls’ School

 Tara

When I was 10, I made my mother promise me that she would buy me a pet dog if I got I got more than 85 marks for all my subjects. That year, I had studied all my subjects with full passion and determination. And I did it. I had fulfilled what I needed to do to get a pet dog. As a volunteer of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), I had an eye for a particular dog that made my heart melt every time I saw it.

That dog’s name was Tara, a rather old Labrador breed dog. It only had three legs and was unfortunately abandoned by its previous owner. Sometimes I wondered how any human could be so cruel to the most precious thing they could ever have. I went to SPCA along with my parents to finally adopt the dog I always wanted.

After finally filling up numerous forms, I officially adopted Tara, a dog I could call mine at last. As I had taken care of Tara previously in SPCA, it was familiar to me and had returned affection that I showed to her. But it was unfamiliar to the surroundings of my house and grew slightly apprehensive. Luckily, due to the loads of love my family and I had given to her, she quickly became used to and comfortable to the surroundings. She finally had a home where she would be cared for as long as she lived.

The more time I spend with Tara, the more I fell in love with her. Despite the fact that Tara was not the most physically capable dog, it was still enthusiastic when it came to playing games with her. To tell you the truth, I had never been happier until she was mine. She was full of life, and that always made me feel better. That was when; I finally had a best friend.

So what is a best friend? It is someone, or something, that will always be there for you, no matter if you are in a difficult situation or not, and will never fail to make you smile. Tara had done everything that a best friend would do for you. She made me happy when I was upset with things that had happened to me. She was there for me no matter how I looked or what I did. She did things that no other people (except my family of course) had done for me.

One fine day, I decided to bring Tara to the park nearby my house so that she could play a game of ‘fetch’. My PSLE was coming soon and I wanted to play with Tara as would not be able to spend much time with her later on. Once I reached the park, I threw a ball so that Tara could catch it. Tara could not immediately catch the ball, but her determination to find the ball amazed me. Once she found the ball, she came running towards me, and hence I decided to give her dog treats. Happily, Tara waited for me to throw the ball again. But this time, Tara was standing towards the roadside. It did not occur to me at that moment that it might be dangerous for Tara, and instead threw the ball without thinking.

The next thing that happened made my head spin. The ball rolled so far that it went on the road. Tara did not stop and kept on running towards the ball. I screamed her name multiple number of times but it was too late. A car driving past speed limit was coming towards the dog. And that was it. The car had run over my precious dog, and did not even stop. On the road, I saw the crushed body of Tara and I could no longer take it. The sight of her dead body made me nauseous and I fainted.

When I gained consciousness, the first thing I saw were my parents. Their face was filled with worry and grief. I remembered Tara getting run over by a car and started crying profusely. I could not belief she was dead, gone forever from my life. I had a hard time explaining what had happened, to my parents.

Till this day, I still grieve over Tara’s death. Due to my carelessness, Tara had lost her life. If I had paid attention to my surroundings just for a second, maybe, today, she might be living.

My family has been telling me to forgive myself and move on, and I keep trying to. One day, I may move on from this incident and forget about my best friend’s death, but today is not the day.

I still have not found a friend like her, who has accepted the way I am. Maybe, when I go to a pet shop to look for another pet, as my parents had encouraged me to do, I may find someone that may remind me of Tara, my precious angel, my best friend.

2nd: Kim Min Kyung, 13, Tanjong Katong Girls’ School

Goldy

I have a pet name Goldy. It’s a golden retriever dog and I got my precious gold when it was my fourth birthday. He was another life to me. I did everything together with him; he was my pet, my family member, and my best friend. I still find his name funny because i named him when I as five and insisted that name even though my family said it sounded weird.

In Primary School, I was bullied by a group of classmates. It made me really stressed and I cried every night scared to go to school. I wanted to tell someone but my friends, I couldn’t trust them and I was worried my family members would be worried for me and my parents don’t really care. But one day as I was crying Goldy went inside my room and licked my tear off. He rubbed against me and licked my cheek. He looked at me as if he was saying,” What’s wrong? Don’t cry, tell me what happened.” I felt comforted and warm inside my heart something I never felt before. Even though I knew he would not understand but I told him everything that happened. I hugged him tightly and cried and cried and cried. But this time, I didn’t cry because I was sad but because I was happy, relieved, comforted.

In school, I would feel depressed but every time I come home it feels like paradise. My mom and dad are both busy with work so they never come home. Sometimes when I study hard and come back you hope someone would be there to welcome you, prepare lunch but that was not going to happen. Instead a dog wagging its tail happily every time it sees me makes me welcoming. I would come home and play with him, tell him what happened in school and a lot more.

When I’m very busy with schoolwork no time to play with him, he would bring out the leash climbing up my bed and pleading me. At times, I feel like pinching his cheek as he is so adorable. When I am upset and got an argument with my sister he would act cute and be playful which makes me happier again. But he’s not always lovely. When it comes to trimming of nails he would be a violent dog that you cannot imagine. He would bite me and I’m about to cut that I would bleed. Still, after all this chaos he could come around and lick the place he bit showing his apology. There are also times when he refuses to eat his food because I did not play with him which makes me very annoyed.

But when I turned 10, he was no longer in my life. He was ran over by a reckless car. He was whisked to the hospital but it was too late. I felt like my life was torn apart, shattered into pieces. I could not believe my best friend is gone, no longer there anymore. I wondered how I am tolerate the bullies, how am I going to be happy. Goldy was part of my life. He brought me happiness, love, and much more than you can compare. There would be no other pets like him and even though he is not beside me but he would always be inside my heart, a best friend.

3rd: Zheng ShiYun

 Pets

Man’s relation with animals is very old. They can be traced back to the beginning of civilization. Basically man is also an animal, but a rational and wise animal. Man is the best creation and measure of all things. However, his kinship with animals is well established. Darwin believed that man has evolved from monkeys. Thus, they are our ancestors.

The friendship between man and animals is more reliable and lasting. The pet animals respond better to our care, love and friendship. Man’s friendship with man may not last long, but it is of permanent nature with the domesticated and pet animals. Animals, birds and such other creatures are never ungrateful. Once friends, they are always friends. They will never turn hostile or enemies came what may. They are constant, loyal and faithful till the last. They do not know betrayal, deceit or foul play. That is why they have been so useful to mankind. Many of the animals are our real and true friends. They live in perfect harmony and friendship with us.

I never got any pets before, but I knew many stories between pets and their owner. Let me tell you a story about one royal dog. It happened on a dark Sunday evening in British Columbia, Canada, when Austin went outside to collect wood for his family’s wood-burning furnace. He noticed that Angel, his happy-go-lucky golden retriever, was acting much more cautious and guarded than usual. Within moments, a cougar tried to pounce on Austin from less than 10 feet away. Angel jumped directly into the big cat’s path and bore the brunt of the attack instead. “She was my best friend, but now she’s even greater to me. She’s more than a best friend now,” Austin said after the attack, which almost certainly would have killed Angel if a local police constable hadn’t managed to shoot the cougar. The 18-month-old dog had surgery to repair extensive injuries to her head. “I was just lucky my dog was there, because it happened so fast I wouldn’t have known what hit me,” Austin said. “I bought her a big, nice juicy steak.”

Not only dogs but also cats can save owners life. Some cats, like Baby the 13-year-old tabby, tend to be timid all their lives. But on a night in January when multiple lives were at stake, Baby’s personality changed.

Josh Ornberg and Letitia Kovalovsky — who was seven months pregnant with twins — had fallen asleep on the couch in their suburban Chicago home. The couple’s house was stocked with baby gear and recently assembled cribs.

A fire began in a back bedroom, and the house began filling with smoke. Baby jumped on Ornberg and woke him up. “It’s kind of embarrassing that I needed my cat to wake me up, but she was my fire detector,” Ornberg told PeoplePets.com. “She’s usually not a very social cat, but she jumped on my lap and was jumping around.”

The fire destroyed nearly all of the couple’s possessions and made the home uninhabitable for a time — but everyone survived. Wonder Lake Fire Protection Assistant Chief Mike Weber called Baby a hero. “We don’t know what the outcome would have been if not for the cat,” Weber said.

That is why I say that pets are my best friend, even though I do not have any pets. Through these stories, I saw the loyalty of pets as friends, I will not treat them as animals any more, they will be my friends, best friends.

Winners of 28th theme:My First Flight To Space

1st: Ashley Tan Yi-Shien, 12, TKGS

My Little Dream to Space

“One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Was the famous quote that was said when Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. From a young age, the moon, astronauts and space had always fascinated me. So sometimes, I would just sit in my room and daydream about my flight to space.

“ Recruits, we are planning to set off to orbit around the moon and space in a month. Since all of you have been chosen for this flight, I trust that you know how important preparing is.” The captain in charge said to us. I nodded along with the rest, trying to look serious, but on the inside I was bursting with excitement. I was honoured to be chosen to go on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and really couldn’t wait.

So for the next month, we had lots of preparations, although they were quite scary at times, I actually enjoyed them after awhile. My favourite one was when we went into a room and they would just switch off the gravity and we would just float around. Although it was a bit weird at first, I slowly became comfortable with the weightless feeling. We had lots of lessons too, like what to do if you ran out of oxygen, how to fix minor things on the rocket, and what to do in an emergency. We also had a lot of physical training, as going to space was not something for the weak-hearted. After all the tests, trainings, preparations were done, we got ready for the flight.

We were actually going to orbit around the moon, then land on one of the smaller planets there. I really could not wait. One month’s worth of training comes down to this, I really hope that I will not freak out and mess things up!

The day had finally come! We quickly put on our spacesuits and boarded the rocket. Lots of people came to see us off; we waved at all of them then set off.

The entire flight was amazing! I saw the moon with my very own eyes, and it was much bigger than when I saw it on earth, and it was very beautiful too! The planet that we had stopped on was supposed to be about the same size as the moon, but it felt a lot smaller as we only landed on one part of the planet, there was no gravity, so we could float and jump around. It was really fun I really enjoyed the floating feeling and was sad to leave. Now walking normally on earth is going to feel so boring after this, I thought to myself.

As we were slowly making our decent, I thought about the whole thrilling experience. I have really learnt a lot of new things, made new friends with the other recruits, my, normal life seems so uninteresting now!

We had just landed, and when we got out, we were greeted by the sounds of people cheering at us. I was basking in the praises when I heard a voice

“Dinner!” It was my mother. Rats! Sadly this was just a dream I have to go back and face reality.

2nd: Cheyanne Sim, 15, TKGS

 Spacecraft

For more than 50 years, I was an engineer, working with designing planes and the mechanisms in them. I loved this job a lot as every plane was different, and they can lead to new innovations and inspirations. Every day was a challenge to me, as there were different problems in different planes. We engineers have to put our brains together to create new solutions. We had to be alert at all times and be creative.

After every new inventions and changes we make to the plane, we had to make test flights. Although this may sacrifice our lives, we did not mind at all, as this is the only way we can ensure the passengers’ safety, and to improve the plane from best to perfect. I miss those feelings of fear and anxiousness, and the feeling of tension and stress when things go wrong, but I’m over and done with everything and I’m too old in serve as an engineer.

However there are moments that I reminiscence, when we are given the craziest and the biggest project—well that was what I thought. It was to create a spacecraft. We had never handled a spacecraft before, and there are so few of them that we couldn’t excess to one for reference, neither are we experienced. We had no idea how were we supposed to invent a spacecraft. We did numerous research and different drawings and designs, so that it is suitable for long hours of flight. The inventing process was long, and the mechanism part was confusing. We had to consider different factors of the possibilities of failures, and these processes took more than two years.

After the actual model and invention was confirmed, we started finding suitable materials to build it. Every single parts of the spacecraft was handmade, all of the hundreds of people of hard work. This spacecraft is now known as the Space Shuttle.

As the leader of the group, I was notified that me, together with five other people were given the privilege to ‘enjoy’ the flight test. Well enjoy is not the right word to use. Obviously we were not confident that the spacecraft would work. We may not survive it. Although it had passed all the safety checks, no one would volunteer to go. No one showed strong interest in going on this flight.

I did not regret going onto the spacecraft. It was the best experience in my life. We get to experience the only kind of food that can be eaten. After some time on the spacecraft, we find our faces slightly bloated, and before we knew, we were floating in the air. I know what you think, we sound like we are helium balloons, but no. It was just that there was the drastic drop of pressure in the air and the gravitational pull. We could apply all physics that we know as an engineer, and make improvements after we were done with this mission.

We are not the professional astronauts and what we were doing was just to enjoy the taste of an astronaut’s career and testing that the Space Shuttle. So what we were given was to land on the moon and get back to Earth.

On the moon, we see so many craters on the ground, everything was unbelievable. It feels like fantasy. While I was reading science fictions, everything felt untrue, but now my eyes had convinced myself.

The scene was so beautiful, and we were nearer to the star clusters, and we had some star gazing. This tells me that we had succeeded in this invention and this mission. All our hard work had paid off. Although this was a short journey, I would never had touched the moon or go to the space, if I wasn’t and engineer. I felt privileged. I was one of the trillions of the people who had visited the space.

Now we know that the spacecraft was safe, more people can visit the moon and enjoy their journey. After the visit, I decided to end my career of an engineer, and stepped down for someone else, to make a better spacecraft.

3rd: Shruti Ravindran, 15, TKGS

A New Home

The Earth was once a place full of green grass and huge mountains and blue skies. The sight was heavenly. However, that beautiful sight no longer existed and no one could remember how it looked anymore. The once blue skies had turned to the colour of ash. The air no longer smelt fresh, instead only the smell of polluted and poisonous gases let out by industries filled the air. There were no longer any junkyards as the streets became one.

The news reported the deaths of about 100 people a day around the world. Their deaths caused by their surrounding environment. Sunlight was no longer known to the humans as the clouds were so filthy that sun rays could no longer pass through them. In order to survive, people had to buy fresh air and fresh water from normal shops which would be sold as capsules.

The entire world was in ruins. Finally the United Nations made a decision to start a cleaning operation on earth, called- ‘Operation Earth’. It was the 30^th of December, the day of the start of the operation. Mammoth machines were moving around and clearing the huge piles of junk on every street. Aircrafts were high up in the sky busy trying to clean up the air above and remove the dense filth that filled the smoky dark grey clouds.

The humans had been evacuated out of Earth and into their temporary planet, Mars. It was like a sweet escape from the terrible earth they lived in. As the spaceship took off, it trembled violently and everyone was scared and their hearts pounded heavily against their chest. The spaceship finally left earth and was in space. It was the most peaceful journey for two best friends, Mark and Sam. They were 15 years old and were unfortunately orphans. They boarded the giant spaceship and gazed around. Their jaws dropped in awe as they had never ever seen such a huge machine and were fascinated by it.

The sight of the earth from space was a pitiful one as there were no longer bright colours on the Earth, only dull ones. However, space was an absolute contrast to Earth. It was colourful with bright meteors which were seen as stars from Earth. The stars no longer looked far away neither did it look small. They were humongous. The planets were like gigantic glow bulbs. The sun looked like a massive ball on fire. The boys put their hands against the glass of the spaceship and enjoyed the darkness outside which had many bright spots. They found that they were peering into a peaceful environment, so silent and yet so beautiful.

However, this calm moment of theirs was soon interrupted by a flashing big meteor heading towards the spaceship. Everyone was shrieking with fear. There was absolute havoc. Terror and fear had conquered the hearts of many. Sadly, the pilot was not able to get the spaceship out of the way of the incoming blazing meteor. Everyone’s heart stopped as it was just a little distance that separated the meteor from the spaceship, a fine line between life and death. Everyone’s hands gripped the handle of the chair tightly and at that point of time prayers were said.

However, just at the nick of time, the tense pilot launched a missile at the meteor. The meteor exploded just before it could have collided against the spaceship. The explosion was massive with bright colours shooting out all around.  It was the most beautiful sight anyone could have witnessed. The boys felt as though they were in watching a scientific fiction film. Finally, everyone took in a breath and became calm again.

After a few days the space ship reached Mars and all the passengers alighted. They were finally happy to be on ground, having spent days in the spaceship. The boys looked around but were too tired. They thought it would be nice to get back to earth after the UN would have cleaned it up, as there is nothing better than home sweet home.