LitQuiz: Sing to the Dawn

/ Omni / 3 Comments
1)Who authored the “Sing to the Dawn?”
Ho Ming Fo
Wrong
Ming Fong Ho
Close, but nope.
Minfong Ho
Well done!
2)Where did the story take place in?
Vietnam
Wrong. Better start reading.
Thailand
Right!
Myanmar
Wrong. Better start reading.
3)What was Dawan’s ticket out of her village?
A government scholarship after becoming her village’s top scorer.
Right!
A place in the Thai military forces as a novice spy after becoming her village’s top scorer.
There was never any mention of espionage in the story.. Save the fan fiction for part B of Paper 1 would ya! XD
Replacing her brother as the government scholarship winner.
How do you replace someone’s post if it wasn’t even theirs to begin with?!
i and ii only.
There’s more to Kwai than what meets the eye.
i, ii and iii.
There’s more to Kwai than what meets the eye.
ii and iii.
Note that in chapter 1, Kwai had revealed the following to Dawan.
All the above.
Better reread chapter 1.
5)What was Dawan’s father’s reaction after finding out about Dawan’s offer to study at the city?
He started weeping and dancing in joy to celebrate his eldest daughter’s success.
Kwai and Dawan’s father is not known to show any warmness towards them.
He instantly threw a fit and stalked off to console Kwai.
Kwai and Dawan’s father is not known to show any warmness towards them.
He instantly threw his hammer down in anger and stalked off.
Dawan’s father then accused Dawan of robbing her brother’s chance of claiming the scholarship.
6)Dawan’s proud grandmother congratulated and helped Dawan there and then by:
Coming up with a plan to get Noi to persuade Dawan’s father.
Dawan’s grandmother wanted Dawan to get a chance at something that neither she nor Dawan’s mother were blessed with.
Walking Dawan to her cousin’s house for a celebration.
There weren’t any celebrations as it was a very tense period for Dawan’s family, remember?
Paying for Dawan’s bus ticket to the city.
According to the story, Dawan has yet to acquire her father’s approval and hence, is still forbidden to leave for the city.
i, ii and iii.
Nope, Dawan’s father as the sole breadwinner of his family, cannot afford to spare any help for others when his own family is struggling in poverty too.
i, iii and iv.
Right! Dawan’s father as the sole breadwinner of his family, cannot afford to spare any help for others when his own family is struggling in poverty too.
All of the above.
Nope, Dawan’s father as the sole breadwinner of his family, cannot afford to spare any help for others when his own family is struggling in poverty too.
8)Which of the following clearly shows that Noi cares deeply about her family?
Coming back to her family in the village.
There’s more to Noi than what meets the eye.
She feels wrong having to serve someone other than her family.
Noi needed the money to support her family.
Lying to her family and trying to discourage Dawan and her dreams to study at the city.
Noi only lied to prevent her family from worrying about her safety at the city. Other than that, she wanted to protect her cousin from being hurt.
9)Why were Noi and Ghan deep in debt?
They have yet to completely pay off Noi’s ex employer for her freedom.
Nope.
They have yet to settle their home’s construction loans.
The villagers built their own homes remember. Plus, Ghan was a construction worker.
They are struggling to pay a government officer for their protection in the village.
Noi and Ghan kept relapsing on their usual payments to a corrupt military officer named Mr Phaspras, who claims to be able to protect Ghan from being drafted into the army. As a result, he keeps increasing their amount for every time they fail to pay up.
10)Which of the below was the main factor of Dawan’s reluctance and inability to claim the scholarship in the beginning of the story?
Her strict father’s threat of disowning her if she does.
Nope, he was too busy sulking and throwing a tantrum in the beginning of the story. The rest was just him living in denial that his daughter was even capable of beating his son. Plus, he would’ve lost a good bargaining chip and be forced to live longer  in denial of never being able to receive Dawan’s dowry.. (Who’s marrying who again?) XD.
Her wish to keep her overly doting grandmother who fears for Dawan’s safety at the city, happy.
Nope, Dawan’s grandmother wants Dawan to succeed and prove to the other villagers her worth as a girl and believes that Dawan will be able to do exactly that at the city. 
Her village’s majority worrying that such education and investment would be wasteful on a girl.
Pay attention kids.. prejudice against the women and young girls in Dawan’s village is constantly being repeated in the story. Enough to make it one of the themes. 😉
ii & iv
Close but not there yet.
ii, iii & iv.
Kwai has good intentions and throughout the story faces a silent dilemma of choosing whether to please his father and himself by claiming the scholarship, or to consider his sister’s efforts and give up his personal pursuits over something that would harm his relationship with his sister.
All the above.
Dawan and Kwai’s school teacher is a fair scholar who believes in the capabilities of both his students, regardless of their class in society.
12) Why was Bao reluctant to accept payment for the lotus from Dawan?
She already plucked so many and needed to get rid of them quick before her brother finds out and reports her back to her family.
Nope, there’s more to Bao’s character than that.
She insists that because she played no part in tending to those lotuses.
According to her, it was the mud that supported the roots, water that flowed life into it and the sun that shined beauty onto it. She compelled Dawan to give back to the river what it deserves if she is true grateful for the lotus bud. Clearly, Bao is a non-materialistic person. Good Job!
She wanted to get on Dawan’s good side.
Nope, there’s more to Bao’s character than that. She didn’t even recognize Dawan as the village scholarship’s winner. 
13) Why didn’t the head abbot agree to helping Dawan persuade her father?
The head abbot is good friends with Dawan’s father and relates to his pain in sending his daughter to the city in the place of his son.
No.The monk is unbiased and is naturally compliant to the course of nature. In this case, he just doesn’t believe in the Dawan’s success in changing something that can’t completely be changed. Plus, the story never said Dawan’s father is particularly chummy buddies with the head abbot. He just highly respects the religious leader.
The head abbot sees more potential in Kwai, to change the flaws of the villagers’ sinful ways.
No. The monk is unbiased and naturally compliant to the course of nature. In this case, he just doesn’t believe in the Dawan’s success in changing something that can’t completely be changed. Other than that, he would also actually prefer Kwai to just further his studies on the temple’s scriptures with Dawan than be off to the city. But the gentle monk will never try to force anything.
He wanted to protect Dawan from chasing whatever he thinks will never change and only make Dawan miserable.
The head abbot believes that everything will inevitably fade away into nothingness and urges Dawan to forget about her materialistic ideals as her efforts for something temporary is futile.
14) What was it that showed Dawan’s determination in proving the head abbot’s statement otherwise?
Her stand that silent self-studying the temple scriptures just doesn’t appeal to really help people in the future.
Just because Dawan pushes for the modernization of her fellow villagers’ views, it doesn’t mean she’s wants them to abandon basic principles for that.  
Her stand to fight and witness changes to her society’s flaws than to just sit back and hope for it to someday change.
Good job! You remembered a theme of this story. Make sure about the rest too.
Her stand against the head abbot and her father as a sign of blooming female dominance and influence.
Dawan is a humble student who will strive for her village’s change of perspective in terms of gender equality. Feminism is the advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes, according to good ol’ dictionary. Try again.
15) What did Bao do to cheer up Dawan after her discouraging meeting with the head abbot?
She started sharing her even more tragic story about how unfair her family was to her by forcing her to spend most of the time being a peddler at the market when she could’ve been at school learning like Dawan.
Chatty Bao already did so in chapter 7. What about chapter 9?  
She allowed Dawan to free a sparrow from its cage for free.
This an important detail in in this story as Dawan opens those birdcage doors. She realizes that she doesn’t need to wait for someone to stand up for her or give her permission to claim her own freedom when she could just do so herself as her brother’s equal.
She told Dawan a story of freeing a sparrow from its cage for free.
Nope. Read the story.
16)What happened after the fight at the market place between Dawan and Kwai?
They both met again on their favourite bridge .
Kwai had been pondering over his actions when Dawan, who wanted to avoid questions from her elders about her cut, stumbles upon him sitting alone in the rain.  
They both went to sulk on their separate ways.
This an important detail in in this story as Dawan opens those birdcage doors. She realizes that she doesn’t need to wait for someone to stand up for her or give her permission to claim her own freedom when she could just do so herself as her brother’s equal.
They both went off to lament at the bridge of the unfairness of their lives.
They didn’t plan to meet there. Try rereading chapter 10.
17)What made Kwai change his mind about pursuing the scholarship?
The sight of his sister throwing an umbrella at him before limping off, pitifully alone in the rain.
Kwai had been touched by his sister’s efforts to keep him safe in the rain despite being hurt by him in their earlier fight.  
The thought of him having to give up his own freedom to study.
Not everyone hates studying.. Kwai genuinely wanted to for the sake of his family and village. Shame shame.. 😥
His sister threatening to rally the whole village against him.
Come on.. there’s more to Dawan and Kwai than that..
1,2,3 &5
Careful.. Be sure to read the whole question. Kwai never really did support Dawan ‘throughout’the whole story. It was hard on him to give up his own ambitions  and dreams for his sister at the expense of his own happiness at the beginning of the story
2,3 & 5
Right-o. Good Job!
All the above.
Careful.. Be sure to read the whole question. Kwai never really did support Dawan ‘throughout’the whole story. It was hard on him to give up his own ambitions  and dreams for his sister at the expense of his own happiness at the beginning of the story
i,ii & iii.
Try again.. it’s close but not there yet.
ii, iii & iv.
So close…
All the above.
Chapter 8, Dawan presented the lotus to the head monk as a sign of respect and a plea to help her convince her father. In Chapter 12, the floating lotus petals were a sign of Kwai’s unseen prospects in the future he has yet to realize. In Chapter 13, Dawan grandmother tries to cheer Dawan up by reminding her that despite being shy and timid in the beginning, she is still capable of blooming and achieving great things given the right attention. This also shows the transition of Dawan’s character throughout the story and hence her kinship to it.
20)How did the story end?
With Kwai dancing to Dawan’s morning song on their favourite bridge, as the first lotus petals start to unfold..
Funny as it is, not quite.. Read the story..  
With the whole village singing Dawan’s morning song to see her off, as the first lotus petals start to unfold..
This isn’t Disney… Plus the song is meant to be personal for Dawan and Kwai.
Kwai singing Dawan’s morning song on their favourite bridge, as the first lotus petals start to unfold..
Good job!

GmeBiz: Nokia 1 and Nokia 7 Plus finally lands in Malaysia.

/ Ariv / Leave a comment

Today, HMD Global finally announced the highly anticipated Nokia 7 Plus to the Malaysian market, along with its cheapest but promised-to-be-stable Nokia 1. Having once being the worldwide market leader for phones, Nokia had a rough journey with their Windows Phone series and the struggle continued when Microsoft took over operations. On May 2016, HMD Global Oy then took charge of Nokia from Microsoft and is currently, The Home of Nokia Phones, they indeed, did not disappoint.

P1070276.JPG

The not-too-sophisticated and “wallet-safe” Nokia 1 is powered by Android Oreo (Go edition), in layman’s term, Nokia made sure their entry-level phone was usable and smooth to navigate. And as advertised, User Interface was smooth indeed, with only having 1GB of ram. The Nokia 1 comes with a quad-core processor, front and rear cameras, dual sim, and the best part- an entry level phone running 4G, that is something you won’t hear often!

nokia xpress.jpg

Nokia even have those of you who love showing up your moods public at heart and Nokia is finally reintroducing Xpress-On Covers, tough enough to take every day knocks and bumps. The Nokia 1 is indeed the perfect phone to migrate from if you still use a feature phone and for the price point, you are still getting Google Maps Go, YouTube Go, ad even Google Assistant for Android (Go edition) and with that Nokia guarantees they will continue supporting the phone with daily updates for two years. The Nokia 1 will be available on 13 April 2018 onwards at a recommended retail price of RM339.00 with GST and with a free Xpress-On Cover (while stocks last) too.

Now to the Nokia 7 Plus, in a nutshell, its a Nokia marvel, beautiful curves and a premium feel, it fits in your hands absolutely perfectly. The Nokia 7 Plus is built from a single block of 6000 series aluminium, but that simply does not mean its a substitute to Thor’s hammer.

p1070277.jpg

The Nokia 7 Plus comes with a 6-inch 18:9 Full HD+ display, a big screen you can do a lots of things on. Nokia is also bringing along their Dual-Sight 12MP/13MP Zeiss Lens over from last year’s flagship, the Nokia 8. Another stunning feature from the Nokia 8 is the Nokia OZO 360-degrees spatial audio recording. Nokia claims videos will be as immersive as the real experience, and boy were they right indeed! The Nokia 7 Plus will be packed with a 3800mAH Battery and powered by the Snapdragon 660 Processor.

Premium features aside, most of you will also be guessing of a premium price. The Nokia 7 Plus will be available at all Nokia retail stores for RM1,699 including GST and if you’re fast enough, you can also catch other goodies attached to the bundle!
P1070339.JPG

What do you think of Nokia returning to the market? Do you still use Nokia? Leave your comments below 😀

The Day The East Wind Blew (Popular Essay Question)

/ En / Leave a comment 
Q: Write about a day when everything went wrong.

Life is as unpredictable as a weather vane, as stormy and sunny weather interchange within a matter of seconds. Yet, more often than not, misfortune rains on our parade, washing us down a dark, dirty, dismal chute of dread and dismay. Such are the vicissitudes of circumstances which are astronomically unpredictable. My life is no different.
Continue reading →