My First ULBS for English

I did my English ULBS on the 18^th April 2018. This ULBS contributes marks to our SPM English exam. I really dislike presenting in front of a crowd of people. However, anything related about contributing marks to or SPM exam is CRUCIAL. Therefore, I went out looking as brave as a lion and did my best. After this my presentation is done, I felt relieved as if I just finished releasing my faeces after in a state of emergency. So here is the whole process of it.

Our English teacher, Puan Monica asked whoever just finish presenting to pick a number for the next person to go up and present. My number was 16 and I was one of the few who has not presented yet. My heart was beating as fast as lighting. I was hoping that my friend would not pick me but he did.

I went up and just staring at the class made me sweat profusely. It felt like you are watching the TV to see who is the future ruler of Malaysia. The whole class took a glance at me and they went back doing their work as if they thought that my story wasn’t interesting. As I was presenting, it did not feel that bad. It went pretty smoothly. I guess it was because everyone was as busy as a bee doing their work.

After the presentation was done, the class had to ask me questions about the storybook. By answering them, I get to have extra marks and if they ask, they get extra marks. After I was done answering the questions, my teacher called me to sign to show that I am done. My anxiousness came back and as I was walking towards her I was really nervous because my marks is written on the paper. As I looked at it, it was 25 and I was relieved again. It is a pretty high mark.

The presentation was not perfect or great to me but I know I did my best. I guess I could have done better but it is good enough. I hope that the presentations that I do next time would be better but I believe the next time I do it, I would not care unless it is for MARKS.

FREE TOPIC- BIOGRAPHY OF BILL GATES

William Henry Gates was born on 28 October 1955, in Seattle, Washington. As the principal founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates is one of the most influential and richest people on the planet. Recent estimates of his wealth put it at US$84.2 billion (Jan. 2017); this is the equivalent of the combined GDP of several African economies. In recent years he has retired from working full time at Microsoft, and has instead concentrated on working with his charitable foundation “The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.”

His father William Gates Sr was a senior lawyer, and his mother, Mary, served as an executive for a major bank. The family were wealthy but, remembering the challenges of the Great Depression, they encouraged their children to work hard and take nothing for granted.

Aged 13, Gates attended the private Lakeside school. It was here that Gates had his first introduction to computers. He taught himself to programme in Basic, making a simple ‘Tic-Tac-Toe’ game. Gates enjoyed the process of working with computers and arranged with a company Computer Center Corporation (CCC) to spend time on their computers – learning source code, such as Fortran, Machine Code and Lisp.

In 1973, Gates enrolled at Harvard, where he studied mathematics and computer science. However, Gates was more interested in pursuing his own coding, and when he saw an opportunity to found his own company, he dropped out of Harvard without finishing his course.

In 1990 Microsoft released its first version of Windows. This was a breakthrough in operating software as it replaced text interfaces with graphical interfaces. It soon became a best seller and was able to capture the majority of the operating system market share. In 1995 Windows 95 was released, setting new standards and features for operating systems. This version of Windows has been the backbone of all future releases from Windows 2000 to the latest XP and Vista.The big break for Microsoft came in 1980 when IBM approached them for a new BASIC operating system for its new computers. In the early 1980s, IBM was by far the leading PC manufacturer. However, increasingly, there developed many IBM PC clones; (PCs produced by other companies compatible with IBM’s). Microsoft worked hard to sell its operating system to these other companies. Thus Microsoft was able to gain the dominant position of software manufacture just as the personal computer market started to boom. Since its early dominance, other companies have struggled to displace Microsoft as the dominant provider of computer operating software. Programs like Microsoft Word and Excel have become the industry standard.Bill Gates founded Microsoft in 1976 when he formed a contract with MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems) to develop a basic operating system for their new microcomputers. In the early days, Bill Gates would review every line of code. He was also involved in several aspects of Microsoft’s business such as packing and sending off orders.

Throughout his time in office, Bill Gates has been keen to diversify the business of Microsoft. For example, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer became the dominant web browser, although this was primarily because it came pre-installed on most new computers. In recent years, Internet Explorer has seen its market share slip.

One area where Microsoft has never been successful is in the area of search engines. MSN live search has struggled to gain more than 5% of market share. In this respect, Microsoft has been dwarfed by Google. Nevertheless, the success of Microsoft in cornering various aspects of the software market has led to several anti-trust cases. In 1998 US v Microsoft, Microsoft came close to being broken up into three smaller firms. However, on appeal, Microsoft was able to survive as a single firm. Although Microsoft was the dominant computer firm of the 1980s, and 1990s, they are now seen as an ageing and declining company – compared to the more dynamic Google and Apple.

Bill Gates is married to Melinda French (married in 1992). They have three children Jennifer (1996), Rory (1999) and Phoebe (2002). With his wife, Bill Gates formed the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Bill Gates says much of the inspiration came from the example of David Rockefeller. Like Rockefeller, Gates has sought to focus on global issues ignored by the government; he also expressed an interest in improving the standards of public school education in the US. He has appeared with Oprah Winfrey to promote this objective. In respect to charitable, philanthropic activities Gates has also received encouragement from investor Warren Buffet, who has given away $17 billion, through the Gates Foundation.

From 2008 Gates has worked full time on his philanthropic interests. It is estimated Gates and his wife Melinda have given away 28 billion via their charitable foundation – including $8 billion to improve global health.

Kem Membaca

 Kem Membaca lasted for 3 days from 3^rd of April to 5^th of April. The first day of kem membaca we had to do word search. I cheated because I started it earlier as I was walking towards the computer lab. Everyone was staring at me but I continued and didn’t care about them. As I took a seat, my class monitor complained to the teacher and she came to me, looked at my paper and she walked away. I wasn’t nervous at all as she came to my table because she isn’t the kind of teacher who scolds, to be specific she is the kind of teacher who tries to make people stop doing things but it fails at the end. After that, she explained the rules and regulations and as she says start everyone looked their paper concentrating on the words that they want to find. By that time, I have already found about 7 to 8 words. It was very challenging and I have discovered many new words that I have never seen in my life. In the end, I only had 16 words. My class monitor won in the end and I was shocked because it couldn’t be possible as I started early. In the end, I had to just accept it.

On the second day, we had a round of hangman. It was during maths period. We were split into half and a piece of paper was given to both the groups. The paper has general knowledge questions that even I didn’t know. There were also answers on it. So, what we were supposed to do is to ask questions to the other groups and they will ask us back too. It was a fierce round. Most of us didn’t know most of the questions so we just gave them an answer that is weird. In the end, our group won by only 2 points. We scored 25 and the other team scored 23.

The third day was a little more fun. We had to go to classes talking about our book that has impacted our lives. We had to go in pairs and I was paired up with Ashikin, a friend of mine. We went to 2 Angsana and the students there were nice. Ashikin went first and her story was kind of interesting. Most of the students asked her questions where as I was just standing there waiting for her urn to finish. Next, it was my turn, I presented a book called The Road. The students listened attentively on what I was saying. In the end, they asked many questions and some of them were kind of ridiculous but funny. The class we went next was 2 Belian. They were extremely hyper. They were barely listening to what I was saying. They were doing their own things. In the end, it was a fun activity and I really enjoyed it.

What I learned about how my efforts will contribute to my exam marks

I have learned that paying attention in class and concentrate is the best thing I can do tI'd raise my test scores. Letting my mind to wander or not showing up at all are both likely to make you miss out on key information that will later appear in the tests.

Besides that, taking good notes is also important if I want to have an easier time studying later. Not only will writing the information down as me learn it helps me in absorbing the information and paying attention, but I'lll have a reference when I go to study later.

Apart from that, homework, such as assignments and at-home reading are where I will find the rest of the information that will be on tests, so doing this homework is important. Schedule time and set aside a quiet place just for homework to help beat the procrastination blues.

Ask teacher or go online and print a few practice tests. Taking a practice test has helped me to figure out how much information I actually know vs how much information I  think you know. Knowing my weak spots before a test is crucial!

ROAD RUN 2018  

On that day, the bell rang later, at 7.40 a.m. Dressed in our respective colorful house T-shirts -- yellow, green, blue and red, we assembled at the basketball court and lined up according to our houses Kesatria, Hebat, Berjaya and Maju. The Sports Secretary, Puan Mariam, then briefed us on the dos and don'ts during the cross country run. After that, we walked in single file to the school gate. Encik Ghanapathi, our school principal then made his way to the front of the line. Preet !! And we were off. The first group of students to run were the class kesatria, hebat, berjaya members, the first, second and third formers. Then it was the turn of maju members the fourth formers. We ran from the school, cut across a hill where there was a stream and passed a housing estate with nice bungalows. The route was scenic but the actual running was a real killer. Most of us forced our legs to run fast, overtaking some slow students, ignoring their jeers and cheers. Having played the fool during the practice sessions, most of us felt our hearts pounding like a thousand drums. A group of girls overtook me. Despite the muscle ache, I increased my stride and managed to match their paces. We followed a hilly road which led us past a stream. The bank of the stream was lined with shady trees. I was sorely tempted to stop to take a rest but decided against it. I gritted my teeth and pushed myself forward, wanting to win maximum points for Kesatria. A group of us soon reached the second checkpoint where a teacher was waiting with bottled water. We slowed down, grabbed a bottle of water from her outstretched hands and rushed off. I soon lagged behind as I was starting to tire. We continued running and found ourselves pounding along a rather nice-looking path with trees on both sides. Suddenly, a sharp pain spread from my calves to the rest of my legs but I did not stop running. The soles of my shoes were as hot as fire as I pounded the pavement to catch up with the other girls ahead of me. Try as I could, I just could not catch up with them. I managed to reach the finishing line later, scoring only five points instead of seven. Those who came way after me got five points each for their houses. It was close to 9.30 a.m. and most of the students had returned to school. Luckily, there were no casualties as those who could not run took their own sweet time to walk back to school. Most of us rushed to the water cooler to quench our thirst. When the bell rang for break, we headed to the canteen to get our favorite drinks and food. The results of the cross country run were announced the next day. My house, Kesatria was the champion House. Elizabeth was the champion for girls while Daniel, a willowy boy, was the champion for boys.

Chinese New Year

 Chinese New year also known as the spring festival in modern China, and one of the Lunar New Years in Asia, is an important Chinese festival celebrated at the turn of the traditional lunisolar Chinese calender. Celebrations traditionally run from the evening preceding the first day, to the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first calendar month. The first day of the New Year falls on the new moon between the 21st of January and 20th of February. This year the first day of the Lunar New Year was on Friday, 16 February, initiating the year of the dog.

 The New Year festival is centuries old and associated with several myths and customs. Traditionally, the festival was a time to honour deities as well as ancestors. Within China, regional customs and traditions concerning the celebration of the Lunar New Year vary widely. Often, the evening preceding Lunar New Year's Day is an occasion for Chinese families to gather for the annual reunion dinner. It is also traditional for every family to thoroughly clean the house, in order to sweep away any ill-fortune and to make way for incoming good luck. Windows and doors are decorated with red colour paper-cuts and couplets with popular themes of good fortune, wealth, and longevity. Other activities include lighting firecrackers and giving money in red paper envelopes.

During Chinese New Year, kids and teenagers receives red paper envelopes called angpau from adults when visiting. Angpau is a monetary gift which is given to the kids or teenagers and only married couples are allowed to give. There will be money stuffed inside the angpau money when is given. The red color of the envelope symbolizes good luck and is a symbol to ward off evil spirits. The act of requesting red packets is normally called tao hongbao.

During Chinese New Year, mandarin oranges, tangerine, satsumas are considered traditional symbols of abundance and good fortune. During the two-week celebration, they are frequently displayed as decoration and presented as gifts to friends, relatives, and business associates.

LEAVING

LEAVING

To be honest, I'll group literally did an impromptu acting. We did not plan this before hand and I think we did quite well. We only started discussing about it during the first day when we had to act. During the process of preparing the act, I felt that we could have done better and I learned that we have to do things early and before hand
and do not procrastinate. My friends and I understands the story well. Since that we planned the sketch last minute, I felt that we did quite well. We can make it better by adding props.

This whole story takes place in Africa where Aloo is acted by Xin Yi and the mother who is acted by Ashikin when the had to move to a new place. Aloo wants to study overseas but his mother does not allow but in the end Aloo's mum finally realized that it is good for his education and therefore she allows him to study overseas. The main characters of this story is Aloo and Mother. One thing that I learns from this story is to love our parents because they took care of us.