Torus: Chapter 1

At 6:00 am, when almost everyone was asleep, a little bungalow at the end of the street had its lights on as usual. Inside was a mother walking around preparing her child’s breakfast for later while getting ready. Today was another day at work and she couldn’t wait for break time. The astronomer has her usual job to monitor the planets and if the space around them was clear. When everything was ready, she walked out into the chilly morning air and watched the great ball of fire push out of the horizon, making the lush grass sparkle like emeralds. She entered her blue Smart car, turned on the engine, and drove down the neighbourhood.

She parked her car at her usual spot and entered the big glass door.

“Bon matin, Susan” the receptionist，Rose LeBlanc, greeted.

Susan smiled at her then walked to her office. 
After boosting her computer and settling in, she did a brief check of the planets. All clear. She was grabbing for her morning coffee when 2 beeps sounded. She saw it before she clicked on the pop-up and she instantly felt cold. For a split second, she froze staring at the screen, but at nothing in particular. A shiver shot up her spine as she finally accepted what she was looking at.

Impossible! she thought. 
After a few minutes, she finally led her boss the screen.

“Steve. Steve!”, she had said. “You better take a look at this…”

Her boss, Steve Williams (Junior Executive Manager of S.P.A.C.E.) didn’t need an explanation; he felt something amiss. Usually, he would tell her to wait (he was a very busy man) but something in her voice said: “ This is different. It can’t wait.” 

Susan Li motioned at the monitor. At first, Williams was confused at what he was looking at. He too shivered as it began to sink in. Cursing under his breath, he looked at Susan in shock.

“How much time?”

Susan instantly took over her computer and started clicking frantically.

“According to this, it seems that we’ll have about 10 years, maybe less…”

Steve knew he needed to remain calm but his blood boiled and his stomach felt queasy. He knew what orders to give, but he was uncertain. “Someone call the president!” he yelled at the gathered crowd.

“Tell no one else. We don’t want them to worry. We all must remain calm and …”

No one was listening. They all took action, his orders were clear. Non, non, non! Williams thought. S’il te plait, non! 

He refreshed the screen, but it showed the same result. Worse, the percentage was 98%.

“Email everyone. Some people might not know yet,” he barked at Susan. “We’ll need as much help as possible…”



Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5

One Small Thing: Music Class

If you think of a girl, you would most likely picture a sweet, innocent and obedient person. On the other hand, most people picture boys as rude, aggressive and stubborn. For this reason, people treat girls nicely and let them get away with stuff and keep a closer eye on boys.

One day, as we were in music class, a boy knocked over a violin case. My music teacher’s temper instantly flared up. He accused the boy for being careless and may have resulted in a broken violin. At the end of class, I accidently knocked over a viola case. My music teacher didn’t even look up and just told me to be more careful next time.

C'était très étrange que my music teacher would get upset at the boy and not at me over the same incident. Teachers usually turn the blind eye to girls as they usually do not get into trouble, do their homework and are responsible. Most boys, on the other hand, hand in their homework late, are irresponsible and get into a lot of fights. Many boys move the pegs of the violin, causing it to be out of tune, tap the bows on the stand and over time, they break and put their feet up on chairs. Whenever it was time to get an instrument, they would rush and jostle around for the “good” instruments. The boys set a bad light in themselves and teachers don’t really trust them. Our music teacher just assumed that the boy purposely kicked the case and I did not. That may be the reason my music teacher did not get mad at me.

Boys and girls are naturally different. Girls generally are more obedient, quiet and rarely get into trouble. They usually like reading books and always finish their homework. They work hard and always listen to the teacher. Boys tend to be more rebellious. They usually do not listen to the teacher and do whatever they want. Although most people get very frustrated at this, it is very important to have a different thought. Boys usually like to challenge things, especially what most people believe in. For example, Isaac Newton said that time moves the same for everyone everywhere. However, a younger scientist, by the name of Albert Einstein disagreed and proved that time in fact runs differently. If people think differently, it is easier to see loopholes in theories, mechanics, ideas, etc. and can make things safer.

En général, although many people get frustrated at boys for their stubbornness and their habit of not listening to people, it is also important for the boys to have their own ideas to make things safer for everyone.

One Small Thing: Math

Prologue

US Air Flight 427 was a scheduled flight from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport to Pittsburgh, with a final destination of West Palm Beach, Florida. The flight crashed on Thursday, September 8, 1994, killing everyone on board. The Boeing 737-3B7 flying the route... see more

-Wikipedia



One normal school day, my class was preparing for EQAO so our teacher showed some previous questions on her SMART board. We were learning about transformations and there were 2 multiple choice questions. We all thought, Wow, this seems easy! [question on bottom]

For me, it took a few seconds to do the multiple choice questions. For question 26, it was c, and for question 16, it was d. In fact, everyone took a few seconds. After a bit of time, we all began to compare our answers. As we were comparing, I noticed that my answer for question 26 was different! Not a single person got the same answer as me. They all chose d, which seemed strange to me. I asked them to explain, and they all answered so confidently. They all thought that if A is translated 3 units to the right, and translated over where the two shapes met, then A will reach B. Inside, I laughed at their thinking and I tried to explain that they need to reflect over line l and not wherever they want. Malheureusement, they wouldn’t listen­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ − or even try to. Only 2 of my friends seemed to trust me and they changed their answers. The others were pretty rude as they all told me that I was incorrect and I should change my answer before Mme checked. Even after all this, I never had a thought to change my answer.

And I’m glad I didn’t. Our discussions ended when Mme began to take up the questions. She asked someone to show the answer and one boy went up gladly. He circled d and people started nodding their heads in agreement. Mme asked if everyone was ok with the answer, and I quickly raised my hand. Then, I walked to the board and circled my answer. Outcries of “Contre-argument!” filled the classroom. Mme said that I was correct and she asked me to explain. I said what I said to them before but they didn’t understand. When Mme did though all their light bulbs lit. I guess I’ll need to work on my explanations.

This is where they were wrong. They didn’t read the answer carefully and sort of made their own answer up. The answer said to translate 3 units to the right, and then reflect over line l. They just reflected it wherever they wanted so that it would work. According to the answer that they choose, parallelogram A would end up on the left side of line l. In math, it’s important to be very precise and careful with the question/situation; a lot of times, they’re trick questions. It’s ok to not be careful in math during school − if you want to lose marks. But dans la vie, consequences may happen.



26. Look at the figures below.

















Which of the following describes how Parallelogram A was moved to create Parallelogram B?

a  a reflection over line l

b  a translation 3 units to the right

c  a translation 3 units to the left, then a reflection over line l

d  a translation 3 units to the right, then a reflection over line l

I am a Singer

There is a show in China called ‘I am a Singer’. My family watches every episode each Friday and it was time for the finals. We each made tiny bets on who will become the Music King. We watched the singers enter the stadium with high hopes on winning the trophy. And the judges? The audience. Their job was to punch in their favourite singer’s name into a device similar to a credit card terminal after all the singers sang. The singer with the most votes becomes the winner accordingly.

My favourite singer was Pung Gia Hwai, the youngest female singer in the group of 7. She entered stage with a flourish with the people cheering loudly after a brief silence at her first impression. She wore a short mid-thigh black dress with tufts of fur at the thick straps. Her long heeled black boots of fine leather made a clack-clack when she walked down the aisle. Her hair was bundled up in a wig─ a Mohawk wig. There were splashes of lavender and violet which blended together as it shook with each step. With her walked another lady similar to Pung Gia Hwai’s age and shimmer. A few minutes later, the crowd silenced and they were ready to begin. The song that they chose was the well-known song from the movie, ‘Papa, Can You Hear Me Sing?’ (《搭错车》Boarding the wrong bus). It was about a mute man who found a baby in his neighbourhood and took care of her until she grew up. She became famous and she hardly had any time to spend with her ‘dad’. In the end, the dad died of over happiness and disbelief when he watched his daughter on T.V. and that was when the girl sang the song ‘Gio Gan Tang Mwai Mo’ (《酒干倘卖无》) Pung Gia Hwai started the song with a light, yet powerful voice, then passed it over to her partner who sang with equal brilliance. The crowd seemed to like it since they cheered at every pause in the song, but to them, this was just another song sang, and with no distinguishable twist that might pronounce them winner─ yet. Suddenly, at the chorus, Pung Gia Hwai was singing the lyrics, but her partner … her partner began to sing another song! It was obviously deliberate, for the beats matched up and it sounded beautiful. Usually, when 2 songs with different lyrics are mingled together, it sounds like a mess with a jumble of words. Yet theirs sounded as if the original singer intended to sing it that way. Also, they didn’t just merge 2 songs together just because they could; the 2 songs together meant something. Pung Gia Hwai was singing about wanting a home, while her partner sang of having nothing (no home). More surprising was that it seemed as if they did it with great ease, like it was a simple task. When they had finished, there was silence, then thunderous applause that shook the stadium. They exited with hundreds of people all wondering, “Should I vote for her?”

The winner turned out to be Yu Tran, 2 singers who always sing together. They sang pretty well, but not as good as some of the others. How did they become the Music King, when other singers sang better than them? While the rest of the singers relied on true talent, they relied on favouritism. Besides, the Music King is supposed to be the singer that the crowd liked best. Their tactic was to get everyone to like them therefore win the trophy. They invited a famous actor who was young and handsome, and basically won all the girls’ votes. Many normal people don’t have a singing talent, but can still sing rather well. That was the actor. He has a knack for acting, though an everyday singing voice. Their choice of song was an upbeat one and they got the crowd going wild by jumping up and down. They shouted to them, got close, waved their hands, everything! Everything a typical pop star would do. The audience roared tremendously as they finished with their ‘signature move’: the push-ups. One person from Yu Tran was the occasional host, but he couldn’t speak very fluently. Every time he said pronounced something wrong, he and his buddy would each do 10 push-ups. Obviously, the crowd loved it. For their second song, they got their fellow musicians and backup singers/dancers to come up, wearing a black and gold t-shirt which spells: Yu Tran. When they exited the stage, their foreheads were gleaming with sweat from all the singing and jumping. As they talked with the main host (the person backstage), the words came out in short bursts as they gasped for air. Even though they got the crowd to like them, should it be that they receive the title ‘Music King’?

The answer is yes. If they were to become the Music King, basically they turn into a superstar. Yu Tran knew exactly what to do, what to sing and how to act in order to get people to like them. Superstars are all loved by their fans, and not entirely on talent. Take Justin Beiber for example. He is a famous singer and all his fans are crazy about him. If they ever got a chance to interact with him, they’d be on cloud nine. Now, take a look at Bryan Adams. He’s also a good singer like Justin Beiber, and Adams has a great voice. However, he’s not that popular (maybe it’s his age) but he sings songs that the older people like so he doesn’t get shouted out to the youngsters and there’s not much to it. Who knows, maybe later on Yu Tran will become a hit sensation.

Geocaching

One day, our dad came home and asked my sister and I if we wanted to go geocaching. Confused, we asked him what geocaching was.

“Geocaching is a worldwide game where many ‘caches’ are hidden”, explained my dad, "You enter the longitude and latitude of the cache into your GPS and go find it. Also, some caches hold presents. You take the present and put in another one so someone else can find it”.
That night, we spent hours on the Internet searching for geocaches nearby. On the weekend, we bought a hand held GPS and mini gifts in case there was a present.

Right after we bought the GPS, we hurriedly entered the longitude and latitude of a nearby geocache and went our way. Half an hour later, we found the geocache. Sadly, there was no present and no pencil to log our name. However, we were still very exited to have another go so we begged my dad to go again and he agreed to take us the following day.
That was so easy, I thought as we walked back.

The next day, my sister and I woke up extra early and entered three geocaches into the GPS. Finally dragging my dad out the door, we ran to the first cache. Just as we approached the hiding place of the cache, we halted. There were two enormous dogs behind a fence that growled and barked at us savagely. Tiptoeing around the fence, we tried to find the cache but the two dogs kept staring at us menacingly and tried to scare us off. After a few more minutes we gave up.
Oh well, I though while walking towards the second cache, we still have two more caches.

Humming, we skipped along the trail while imagining what would be inside the second cache. Suddenly, the GPS beeped, signaling that we were almost there. We walked a few more steps and encountered a deep rushing river with sharp rocks jutting out that prevented anyone from crossing. We walked along the river, trying to find a way across.
“There must be a bridge nearby”, I said.
We kept walking but there was no sign of a bridge. Once in a while, we would climb on top of a hill to scan the area but we caught no sign of a bridge.
“Let’s look for the third cache”, I suggested.

We kept walking forward until we saw a bridge. I looked down at the GPS. The cache was right across! We scrambled across the bridge and began searching. We turned over every rock, searched in every tree, looked under piles of leaves, and under every bench. Still the cache was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, my sister cried out.
“I found something”, she called out while waving a piece of paper in the air.
I jumped up and ran towards her. That could be a clue! Sometimes, when the cache was too difficult to find, the company would give clues or hints. My sister carefully unfolded the piece of paper and her smile faded.
“Under maintenance”, it read.

“Let’s go back and look for the second geocache”, my dad said cheerily, “We already crossed the bridge.”
I looked down at the GPS.
“It’s too far away”, I muttered as we walked into a nearby forest.
Luckily, there was a trail of flattened grass leading the way into the forest. There were signs of human activity everywhere. There were broken branches that were tossed away to clear the path, empty bottles and cans and scattered food wrappers. There was even a put out fire. Fifteen minutes passed and we were still walking. The path of flattened grass was becoming narrower and was fading. My boots began to sink into the ground as branches began to block the way. Suddenly, a hare jumped out and I recoiled in shock while my sister laughed. However, soon, there were no more squirrels or chipmunks running around and the birds stopped singing. The towering trees leaned over us threateningly and moaned ominously. We tripped and stumbled over hidden tree roots and the branches clawed at us and blocked the way.

Suddenly, I stopped. Beside me were two enormous trees that were leaning against other trees. Their roots were ripped out of the ground and swayed limply in the wind. The wind had to have done that because barely anyone ventured this far into the forest. What if we couldn’t find the cache? We tried finding two others and something always went wrong. Even on our first try, there was no pencil. Plus, the wind could’ve blown the cache away. If these two gigantic trees were blown over, what chance did a little box have? What if a blown over tree crushed the cache or perhaps trapping the cache somewhere so we could never get it?
You’re never going to find it, I told myself.
But you are so close, my other side said.
But something always goes wrong, the little voice said again.

Yet I still walked on, and the GPS told us we were getting closer. After 10 more minutes, we reached a hill. According the GPS the cache was right on top of the hill. With one last effort, we climbed to the top. Before us was a tall sturdy tree. My sister let out a squeal.
“I found it!” she exclaimed, pointing at a box.
We quickly opened the box. Inside was an assortment of little toys and a notebook. After a few more minutes, we climbed down. I took a step forward. I looked left, then right.
“Umm…”, I asked, “How are we going to get back?”