Help 109年國中教育會考

When it arrives,
Everyone cheers.
The shirts and shorts dance
On the clothesline,
The trees and flowers wave
Like they’re saying hi,
And the clouds are so excited
To have a running race.

When it comes,
Dad’s face falls.
His coat and jeans jump
Off the clothesline
Into the pond.
The tree leaves hop off
And have a party on his new car.

When it gets here,
A lot of fun things I notice:
The pond’s face,
Sad and old with lines;
Mrs. Smith’s bread,
Delicious and freshly baked.
But what smell is it?
Oh, no, it’s from Mr. Brown’s feet!

Taiwanese Bian-dang in Manhattan, New York City

5/30/2014 by Eva Schmidt

During lunch time, on 53^rd Street, you’ll see a long line of people in front of a Taiwanese food truck for their “bian-dang,” a Taiwanese word for “lunch box.” On the menu you can find fried chicken with rice, pork dumplings, tea eggs, and other popular Taiwanese dishes.

The owners of the food truck are Thomas and Diana Yang, two Taiwanese-Americans. This brother-sister team started their business in 2009. Back then, there were a few Taiwanese restaurants in the city and several thousand food trucks, but the Yangs were the first to sell Taiwanese food on a food truck.

At first, business was slack. People thought they were just another Chinese food truck, and the food truck’s name, “Cravings,” often made people think of desserts, not lunch. Few people would stop by and try their food. “I couldn’t even give away free food,” said Thomas. To catch people’s eye, they painted their truck blue, and drew Taiwan’s national flower, the plum blossom, on it. They also changed the food truck’s name to “bian-dang.” Soon people started to notice them, and business finally got better. Now on a good day, they can sell about 150 bian-dangs in about two hours.

So what’s next for Thomas and Diana? Well, they hope one day there will be a block with Taiwanese food in the city, just like there is a Chinatown, a Korea Town, and a Little Italy. And their bian-dang food truck might just help to make that happen.

This is a letter by Selena Bieber to the students in her school.

Do you feel it’s hard to get up early for school and even harder to listen well in the first class at 8 a.m.? Well, this happens to most of us and is not helpful for our learning!

Some studies show that teenagers’ brains make melatonin, the hormone that helps sleep, between 11 p.m. and 8 a.m. So it’s better for us to sleep during these nine hours. But here comes the problem. We’re asked to get to school by 7:30 a.m. That means we have to get up before 7, when our brains should still be sleeping. That’s why we’re always so tired and can’t think clearly in early morning classes. No clear head, no good learning, right?

If we can’t change how our body works, why can’t school start later? In this way, we can not only sleep more but also learn better!

Want to help us make it happen? Visit www.nvhsstudsup.org/later-better to learn more.

Kivalina, an island village in Alaska, USA, is known by only a few people. It cannot be found on most maps of Alaska because it is only 10 km² . This small Arctic village is home to 400 Inuit people*. However, their home will become uninhabitable because the island could be covered by the Chukchi Sea by 2025. These Inuit people will have to leave their home.

But life now is already difficult. Over the past twenty years, winters have become warmer, the Arctic ice has kept melting, and the sea has been rising. These changes have made it harder to live by hunting and fishing than before. What’s worse, there is no Arctic ice thick enough to keep them safe from terrible wind and rain.

These Inuit people think it is the oil and power companies in Alaska that have brought all these troubles, but they are the ones who are paying the price. It would cost hundreds of millions to move their village, and they have no idea where to get the money. Groups like ReLocate are working together with the Inuit people to save Kivalina, but nobody is sure if their hard work will come to anything. All the Inuit people can do now is to pray the rising sea will not cover their home too soon.

* The Inuit people are a group of people who live in the Arctic.

NOlympics in Munich

11/11/2013

People in the city of Munich have spoken their mind: they do not want to host the Winter Olympics in 2022. To the cities that fight for this chance, 38. The Olympics usually do a lot of good to the host city. The Games bring in jobs, visitors, and, most important of all, money. So why did people in Munich say no?

The Olympics 39 for people in Munich. For them, the world’s biggest sports festival could invite serious trouble. There would be a lot of building work before the Games, and during the Games, too much traffic and too many visitors. Life would become terrible and nature would be hurt. And 40: Munich hosted the 1972 Summer Olympics, and its neighbor, the mountain town Garmisch-Partenkirchen, hosted the 1936 Winter Olympics.

Still, the heavy price Munich paid does not worry the cities that are in the race to get the 2022 Winter Olympics. 41 , they are happy that Munich said no to the Olympics—their chances of getting the Games have become higher.