The Hike of the Double Ninth Festival

Angela Y., 8, St. Paul Co-Ed

1)     It is a beautiful day. The sun is shining, and you have the day off from school, so you and your friends decide to go on a hike. How do you get to the mountain? What do you see on the journey there?

When you look at the mountain from far away, you’ll see a brown cap of farmland at the very top so it looks like it’s wearing a hat.

2)     As you approach the mountain, you and your friends realize that it is extremely tall. Fill in the blanks to use similes in order to describe it.

The mountain is as large as a dwarf planet.

The mountain is as green as jade.

The mountain is as tall as a giant.

3)     After an hour of hiking, you stop to eat lunch and enjoy the views. What do you see? How does it feel to be so high up, away from the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong Island?

Everything feels soothing and quiet, as if Gaia (the goddess of Mother Nature) is near. Nature is unique in its own way.

4)     You and your friends start to see dark clouds form above. Suddenly it is pouring, and you don’t have umbrellas. It is too dangerous to run down to the bottom of the mountain. Describe in detail what you do.

We get tot eh inner paths, avoiding busy areas. Just the roaring thunder told us that we were about seven thousand miles from it.

5)     One of your friends calls everyone over. He has found a small cave in the mountain where you can avoid the rainstorm. Inside the cave, you lean on a rock. When you do this, a tiny door opens, leading to a tunnel inside the mountain. How do you feel? What do you do?

We all felt excited thinking that there is some treasure hidden in it waiting for us to find. Curiously, we enter the tunnel.

6)     After careful deliberation, one of your friends pulls out a torch, and you and your friends decide to enter the tunnel. What is it like inside? Use all five senses to describe what you see and feel.

We see an almost endless winding flight of stairs. Feeling the banister, we go down slowly. Somehow, a smell reminds me of breakfast. Treats are hung on the wall. I gave them a lick…mmmm…Music came from below.

7)     As you descend into the tunnel, you hear strange noises echoing ahead of you in the dark. How does this make you feel? Despite some fear, you decide to keep exploring further. Why do you do this?

Some feeling down my back tells me that I have to keep going because I think the bottom of the stairs is an exit.

8)     Finish the story! Write at least ten lines describing what you find at the end of the tunnel and how the story ends. Be as creative as possible!

        I ran to the bottom of the stairs in no time. I saw a huge button and pressed it. An armchair appeared. After I sat on it, it felt like the world was never going to stop spinning. I was going down, down, down…

        Suddenly, I fell with a thud. My friends fell after me. We had landed in the parking lot where I had parked my car. We were relieved to see that the rain had stopped and the sun had come out. We all went home and became better friends after that.

Rosa Parks Was Justified

Travis W., 11, CIS

        Even after the Civil War in the 1800s, racism and segregation still remained in America. In 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested after refusing to give up her seat to a white man on the bus. I believe that she was justified because she was standing up for what she believed in, the law was unfair, and she did not fight back and let herself get arrested.

        Rose Parks was standing up for her beliefs. She was a civil rights example-setter and she was also an example for the black people to give their complaints to the Supreme Court. At the time, the law was heavily favoured to the white people, but she believed that everyone should have been treated fairly and that everyone was created equal by God. Some people are scared to put their voices out to the public. However, Rosa Parks was brave enough to give out her opinion and let everyone know about her thoughts toward the unfair law. Everyone should stand up for their beliefs and give people their opinion no matter the consequences.

        The law was mightily unfair at the time of Rosa Parks’s arrest. Black people had a lot of unfair opportunities and black people in other words were not as good as white people. Nobody wants to be treated badly and everyone wants to have an equal opportunity and to be treated fairly. As people, we all have rights to food, shelter, medical attention and the right to speak out. At the time, black people were denied some of these rights or were given rights that gave them less freedom. When Rosa Parks got arrested on the bus, she was denied of the right to speak out, so in a way, the government and Rosa Parks were breaking the law.

        Rosa Parks did not fight back or resist arrest against the police and let the police arrest her. She did not act like the psychopaths you see on television and start yelling and try escaping. She was calm and was able to control her feelings against an unfair law. People should respect her for how she acted dignified and obedient under an unfair law.

        Rosa Parks acted how everyone should under terrible conditions. She was standing up for what she believed was right, she fought an unfair law and she was nonviolent at her arrest. People who believed that she was acting rebellious should think that she was a brave person fighting for civil rights.