AN UNEXPECTED VISITOR (NUMBERS IN AN OLD PHOTOGRAPH)

Question : 2005 SPM English Paper 1 (Continuous Writing)

AN UNEXPECTED VISITOR (NUMBERS IN AN OLD PHOTOGRAPH) 

          The clock on the wall showed the time of a quarter to six in the evening. I was having my tea with Timothy, my old colleague for the past eleven years. I kept my elbow on the table with my hand holding my chin while I drifted into some deep thoughts. “Wake up short stuff! What are you thinking about this time?” asked Timothy with a grin on his face. “Nothing really. I was just thinking about some plans for the latest project. That’s all,” I answered straight forwardly. “Really now? I thought you were thinking about that favourite friend of yours. What is her name again?” replied Timothy with a sarcastic manner. “I think you know quite well that people like us don’t have time for...,” I answered incompletely due to an interruption.

          Apparently, there was a knock on the door that interrupted our conversation. I left the kitchen and headed for the door without any presentable attire as I just wore a pair shorts and a jersey. “That could be her,” stated Timothy. I smiled as a response and continued to grab the door knob. After opening the door, I felt as though my heart sank and I began to sweat due to nervousness. “You! What are you doing here?!” I asked myself with the look of increasing pressure on my face. “Hello Mr. Adam. I think you know who I am and I am here to discuss about that new nuclear power system you designed,” answered the unexpected visitor. Those words that came out of his mouth nearly made me faint as he was the government’s top officer in the power plant department. I realised that I probably made a huge mistake in that nuclear power system I designed.

           Immediately, I invited him into my apartment and I got dressed to look a little more formal. We continued to have our conversation at the dining table and I brought along my documents and presentations to be discussed. “Your design was missing a few numbers. The magnitude of the force used to break the atoms was strong, but the energy efficiency is not enough,” said the officer. I felt puzzled as I remembered that I used all the suitable and efficient technology to design my nuclear power system. “If the energy efficiency is not enough, I am afraid I have to close your nuclear power plant and replace it with another type of power plant,” stated the officer. He said that I had a month to settle this issue, and he left my apartment.

          For the next few weeks, Timothy and I burned the midnight oil researching for the solution to the problem. We looked back at our older blue prints to see whether there were any flaws in the previous designs. Next, we used some of those blueprints to check for certain specifications so that we could test them through some computer simulations. We had to carry out complex simulated dismantling of the parts of the earlier nuclear power plant designs through the computer simulations. This was followed by the process of replacing certain gears in the generators and changing the settings of the transformers to increase the voltage of electricity. However, as these steps were only mere simulations, the exact and accurate measurements can’t be obtained. Therefore, we could only test these upgraded designs based on theories and no real experiments could be done.

          After two long weeks of mind-twisting and patience-testing work, Timothy and I decided to have an online conference with the other mechanical engineers of other cities. We decided not to leave our apartment because we needed to make sure that our documents, presentations and blueprints are in safe hands. During the online conference, we discussed about the issue and the other engineers gave some suggestions to overcome it. They mentioned about using a specific set of measurements for the nuclear reactor’s main source of heat. This was when I remembered that I did write down the complete equation for the suitable production of heat in the nuclear reactor. I went to my bedroom, opened the drawer of my bedside table and I found the book that contained the equation. Unfortunately, it was missing a few numbers.

          It was the last Saturday of the month, I went to bed and at the same time, I prayed to God that I would be able to find out what were those missing numbers. Later that night, I had a dream of something I did in the past. The dream was about me hiding a strip of paper inside the frame of an old photograph. The next day, I walked out of bed to find that old photograph which served as a memento of me and that favourite friend of mine. That photograph brings back old memories, but then I remembered about the dream I had. I removed the frame and found the piece of paper which contained the numbers for the equation. With the numbers found, the equation was completed and the officer from the power plant department eventually approved my design of the nuclear power plant.

          “So you hid the numbers inside that old photograph of you and her?” questioned Timothy. “Yes, apparently I did,” I answered Timothy. “I should have known this from the start. After all, it is a little obvious to me that you would hide something so precious inside something else that is precious as well,” said Timothy with a smile.

ONCE OLD FRIENDS, NOW FAMILY (THEY LOOKED AT EACH OTHER AND SMILED MEANINGFULLY)

Question : 2011 SPM English Paper 1 (Continuous Writing), Question No.4

ONCE OLD FRIENDS, NOW FAMILY

         Robert and Rebecca were initially very close friends ever since they were little kids. However, it was the destiny for both of them to become more than just friends, as they eventually became family. Their friendship began when they started their preschool education in the St  Andrew’s Kindergarten. When their preschool education ended, their friendship continued even when they went to separate schools as they attended the same church. By the time they reached the age of 16, they even attended the same tuition classes for subjects like Additional Mathematics, and Chemistry. Indeed their relationship was close and the broad smiles of Robert and Rebecca were always seen whenever they saw each other. They were like birds of a feather.

          So much time passed since they first met, and their relationship was still as strong as how it was many years ago. Sometime after the SPM examinations ended, Robert and Rebecca, like any other teenager of their age, spent their holidays by doing the activities they could not do before. For Robert, he formed a band with some of his old classmates. Interestingly, Rebecca seemed to show a lot of support for Robert’s idea as she made her presence for any of his band’s performances. Robert was fascinated by Rebecca because he did not expect a girl to show interest for bands. On a certain occasion when Robert’s band performed for a birthday party, Robert grabbed his old electric guitar and sang the song ‘Summer of 69’ by Bryan Adams which amazed Rebecca for he had a very husky voice.

  

          “Hey Robert, may I ask you a question about your school?” asked a curious Rebecca. “Go on ahead,” answered Robert with a cheerful face. “Is it true your school accepts girls to study in the sixth form?” asked Rebecca. “Yes, that’s true,” replied Robert. “Great! See you there in a week,” Rebecca said quickly even before Robert could continue his sentence. It was that moment Robert realised she was really going to study in his school. The two years of form six for Robert and Rebecca were filled with ups and downs. Both students were very committed towards their subjects such as Biology and Chemistry. While Robert preferred dissecting rats and frogs, Rebecca was very fond of producing hydrogen gas from zinc and hydrochloric acid. Although they have slightly different interests, they still loved their studies in the classes of L6Sc2 and U6Sc2. 

          Surprisingly, Robert and Rebecca were enrolled into the same university by their parents. To Rebecca, the situation seemed like a coincidence but to Robert, it was more than that. They were the cream of the crop of their batch because of their useful combination of intelligence, patience, kindness and respect for others. Though they were extremely busy in university, they could still find some time to communicate, even if it was for only a mere few minutes. Their routines were filled with lectures, projects, and assignments with very little time for leisure activities. Robert and Rebecca not only cooperated well when carrying out simulated surgeries, but also showed a lot of care for each other. For Rebecca, she began to show some affection for Robert during these stressful years.

            After the long years of studying medicine, Robert and Rebecca finally earned their MBBS certificates. They were officially called doctors and their first work place was the Permaisuri Bainun Hospital. Patient after patient, surgery after surgery, and report after report, they managed to pull through them. They were as busy as bees, no time for long breaks, watching television and relaxing, as their lives were all about work. However, they were always happy with their jobs and showed very little dissapointment towards their careers. Staying positive was not a big problem for them. 

          A few months after they were transferred to this hospital, Robert secretly planned a dinner for himself and Rebecca. On a fine Saturday night, the two of them went to a fancy Italian restaurant for the special dinner. A violinist came to their table to play some soothing music while Robert thought of the right words to say to Rebecca. So, he stated that he was always thankful for the friendship he had with her, and that he was ready to make her his wife. Rebecca was in tears of joy to hear that from Robert. They looked at each other and smiled meaningfully. 

I don't always write love stories, but when I do, it's usually quite bad. So here's a song by guitarist Bryan Adams to cheer you up from feeling dull after reading it.

If you read the story, you could see that I mentioned the song's title in paragraph 2. 
 

THE MEMORIES OF THE 2014 LIFE-SAVING COURSE (IT HAD BEEN RAINING ALL DAY...)

Question : 2010 SPM English Paper 1 (Continuous Writing), Question No.4

THE MEMORIES OF THE 2014 LIFE-SAVING COURSE

          It had been raining all day and I was just lying on my bed while drifting away in thoughts peacefully. As an average college student of 20 years old, I was a little bored as I had nothing much to do during my term break. So, I decided to search for some of my old files in my bedroom and I stumbled upon a file which contained all of my swimming training documents. I found some of my life-saving certificates of the year 2014 and I started to reminisce about the life-saving training of that year. As I recalled of the training my friends and I went through, I began to smile. I smiled because I remembered the memorable lessons and thrills of the training. I was just 15 years old at that time but I managed to complete the training which even made myself surprised as I did not know I had the strength for it.

          The life-saving course started around late November 2014, sometime after my PT3 examinations. As I was very free, and had nothing better to do, I participated the course because I knew such courses were only held once in a blue moon. The group of swimmers who participated was initially small, but it grew after the SPM examinations. For the swimmers who were standard six until form four, they joined earlier so many of them had the chance to undergo the early physical training. Swimmers from SMK St George, SMK King Edward VII, SMJK Hua Lian, and SMK Darul Ridwan participated. The swimmers were all very eager to pass all the life-saving tests as we were really interested to be the next generation of qualified lifeguards. We were prepared to face a slightly higher level of life-saving training.

          The first form of life-saving training was the method which involved towing the victim using a rope. Though it may sound easy, I wasn’t exactly the best person to throw the rope mainly because I was bad in coiling the rope. After a few attempts, I managed to coil, and throw the rope properly. Apparently, I lost to a twelve year old swimmer from an all girls’ school, which sort of filled my mood with jealousy. Though, the jealously didn’t last long as I had many more tests to go. The next test was the method which involved towing with a non rigid and buoyant object such as a life preserver, a rubber tube and a practice board. Personally, this was my favourite method as it was not a very complicated strategy because all we had to do was swim to the victim and let the victim hold onto the object.

          Either than the life-saving strategies, we swimmers had to undergo a lot of stamina training as well. This included swimming for 100 metres or four laps under 100 seconds, swimming continuously for 300 meters under six minutes and the most lung-aching training which was swimming underwater without breathing for one lap. The 300 meters swim and underwater swim was all about stamina and endurance. With the main purpose of strengthening the lungs and muscles, it was very tiring and energy-depleting. Thankfully, I could pass all the tests and I was really blessed as I could complete the underwater swim. I felt as though my legs were made up of toothpicks attached to heavy stones after I finished a lap of underwater swimming. This training resulted into my improvement of the ability to hold my breath for a long period of time.

          We had about a week break around the time of Christmas, but when that was over, the course resumed. After Christmas, it was the time to undergo the real tests, whereby we had used all the skills and strategies of life-saving we learnt. The toughest test was swimming for four laps, and towing an aggressive victim. I had to use the underarm chin tow, which was basically towing the victim by holding the chin while placing my arm under his arm. I considered it quite challenging because it was the least comfortable position to tow the victim and not to mention the victim must struggle in the middle of the swimming pool. This test required more skill and endurance rather than speed because it was mostly a matter of rescuing the victim for long distances. The victim I carried was older than me by one year and was very tall so I asked myself the question “Why must I tow someone this tall when I was clearly short and weak?”. Though, I never actually got the answer I wanted.

          The following year, all of us received the certificates for the specific examinations we took. I earned the Distinction, Award of Merit and International Life Saving certificates. I stopped recalling about my past, and I realised how many challenges I went through. The memories of the course are still quite fresh in my head even after five years. The course which began in late November and ended exactly on the 31^st of December, 2014 was the best way to end a year filled with ups and downs. I placed the certificates back into my file, and I walked away from my bedroom with a broad smile which showed satisfaction of what I did for the course.