Feb 28, 2014 ... Pacific Academy had its third Christmas party on December. 21th, 2013. .... First, I
think your intro paragraph is too general, and almost all the.
Inside:
School News -- 5 - 7 New Students -- 5 Comics -- 3 & 4 Opinion -- 2 - 4 Folktales -- 8
Vol. 2, Issue 4 PACIFIC ACADEMY HIGH SCHOOL, Irvine Campus, 4947 Alton Parkway, Irvine, CA 92604 February, 201 3
Spring Festival in China
By Lily You Spring Festival is coming. Everything is new. It symbolizes the beginning of the year and marks the start of another life-point. Spring festival is the grandest festival in China, and it is also the most traditional festival in China. From 4,000 years ago to now, Chinese people have celebrated this holiday. Of course, on January 31, 2014, PA holds New Year Lunch for the year of the horse. Spring festival has a lot of interesting activities in China, for instance, staying up, putting cut-out decoratious on the window, writing Spring Festival couplets, “fu”, eating the New Year dinner, giving money to children, fireworks, eating dumplings and New Year cake, and so on. Staying up is in the last day of the old year (New Year is Eve). People do not sleep at night. They stay up with their families all night , and the younger ones have to give the good wishes to the older ones on the first day of New Year, and then the older people will give them the money that they prepared before. The money is related to age, so older children usually get more money to help them stay lucky all year. On New Year's Eve when the children fall asleep, the parents will secretly put the money under the children’s pillows. Before the Spring Festival, people like to paste a variety of paper on the windows. The festive paper patterns not only provide a festival atmosphere, but they also show the best wishes for the new year. During the Spring Festival, some people like to paste the “Fu” on the window. “Fu” means lucky. In order to get lucky in the new year, some people paste the “Fu” upside down so that means luck is coming. The most happy thing for the children is playing the fireworks with their friends. Chinese people think the fireworks can scare away the bad things and then the people can get the luck. At Christmas, many Americans enjoy the turkeys and puddings. Of course, Chinese people also have some delicious food for their New Year. In the New Year’s night, Chinese people will prepare a lot of dishes for their dinner. The most popular meal includes fish and New Year cake. They both mean the people will earn more money and get more happiness in the New Year because, in spoken Chinese, “fish” sounds similar to “surplus” and “rice cake” sounds like “year high,” meaning higher and higher year by year. Of course, Chinese people have different activities depending on which provinces in China they come from. PA students who come from different provinces in China have different Spring Festival activities. “During the Spring Festival, my family at least eat eighteen kinds of food, they are awesome. But we cannot eat tofu during the Spring Festival, because it is unlucky,” Angel Fan, who comes from the Zhejiang province, said. Sam Du explained that “to eat tofu means you will be bothered by the other sexes.” There are some interesting activities during the Spring festival. “In the first day of new year, you can watch the performance of the Dragon and Lion Dance. It is so lively!! If you want to spend new year in Guangdong province, you have to watch this performance!!” James Liang said excitedly. William Li plays an interesting game during the New Year’s Eve: “When we are waiting
The Third Christmas Party at Pacific Academy
By Sando Feng Pacific Academy had its third Christmas party on December 21th, 2013. Most students and teachers went to the party. The ASB was in charge of the Christmas party. During the party, students did the "White elephant" gift exchange. Then all the people got separated into many groups to play different games. There was kick ball, Karaoke and many different games. The ASB also served food for students. There were drinks, snacks, and pizza. The party ended successfully. The students were dismissed around 12:30. “I really like the gift exchange,” said Dara Li. When asked what she thinks about the Christmas party, she said, “The party was really fun. The gift exchange was the part I like the most. Lot people got what they want, but some others can’t get what they want. Anyway, it was a successful party.” When asked what she thinks about the food that ASB served, she said, “ASB did a really good job on serving the food. There were many different kinds of food. Some people like to eat sweets, and some others might like to eat salty food. So the food was served pretty well.” Vivian Lee really enjoyed the party. She said, “My favorite part of the Christmas party is the group game “Mafia.” I really enjoy playing these types of game. If you want to play this game, first you have to take care of all the things that is happening. Anything that is not normal will
for the new year, the women are busy making the dumplings. And they put a coin in a dumpling secretly. If you eat the dumplings that with coin, you will be more lucky in the New Year.” Both Judy Zhu and Amy Zhou said, “During the Spring Festival, we eat the Glutinous Rice Balls. It means we can be with our families together forever!!” Mr. Corpus, who spends Chinese New Year with his wife who is from China, said, “Our family does not do a lot to celebrate the Chinese New Year, but we do hope for good luck, and therefore we have some traditional food. Usually we will have noodles and some fish. Some years, we also make dumplings. Sometimes we give our children red envelopes. And in some years we have gotten together with friends and had a traditional meal at home or a restaurant.” Vivian Lee, a girl who comes from Taiwan province, said “Early in the morning, all of my families will come to my grandparents’ home. The women have to cook for the meals. And the men will play mahjong and talk with our families, and the children will play with their cousins. After eating the dinner, the older people will give the younger people money for the New Year.” During the Lunar New Year, PA holds a lunch party in order to celebrate Chinese New Year. Most of the teachers and students take part in this activity. There is a lot of diversity of food from Korea and different provinces in China for people to help themselves to. In order to emphasize the happiness of the Spring Festival, Kelly Chu, who is the CEO of the school, designed a lottery for the red envelopes at the lunch. Some students performed for the New Year Lunch, like James Liang, Max Liu, and David Yin. “New year means new changes. So I think there are a lot of differences from last year. First of all, the performances are different. Second, last year everyone could get one dollar, but this year we have a lottery to get money of the New Year,” Ted Liu said. David Yin, the boy who performed first, said, “In China, we have Chinese proverb: If you do not be happy during the Spring Festival, you will not happy in the Students are waiting to pick up lunch! whole year. For this reason, I sang a funny song in order to make everyone laugh and then people will be lucky in the whole year. But next time I will try my best to sing an attractive song.” Keilantra Yan, a new student, said, “I think this New Year lunch is super meaningful because we cannot spend Spring Festival with our families, but we can spend the New Year with our friends. We can also eat the food from different places. It is a good experience for me. I hope we can have this kind of lunch every year.”
give you some evidence. So I think these types of game really fit me.” When asked besides “Mafia,” what she liked about the party, she said, “I really like the Karaoke spot. A lot people was singing, and some of them sing pretty well.” When asked what he thinks are the differences between the Christmas party this year compare to the previous parties, Mr. Corpus said, “Every year, the party is getting bigger. At the first year, there were only about 20 students. During the second year, we had more people but the gift exchange took so much time. This year’s party separated the students into three Kai is explaining the rules! groups. That saved a lot time for students to do other activities.” When asked what the Christmas party next year will look like, he said, “For sure, there will be more people. So we will add some more activities just like the Kick ball and Karaoke. I really like the idea that students got to choose their own activities. Not everyone likes to play the same game. So students had more fun during this year's party.”
PA OPINIONS 2
The Necessity of Finals By Rooney Gao At the end of last month, we PA students all experienced the finals for the first semester of the of 2013-2014 year. Since it is one of the most important academic activities and everyone has a strong reaction to it, I think it’s good to talk about the necessity of finals. For me, I have thought that these tests are very necessary. They make a semester complete and meaningful. They give us a result, a response, and also, a comment on our performance during the whole semester. There are different types and levels of tests. Some exams include school tests, TOEFL, SAT, ACT, and others. Some levels of tests include quizzes, chapter tests, finals, academic achievement tests, and in Violent Games By Andrew Lee These days, violent video game sales are on the rise, but violent games are not as bad as we think they are. As sales rise, violent crimes and events are actually decreasing. Violent video games help release anger and stress. There are a lot of school shootings these days, but very few are related to violent video games. Most are related to previous events such as bullying, which isn’t caused by violent games. There is proof that violent games are not that bad for kids and adults. On a news site, called Forbes, written by a professional writer who writes about games and the industry, there is a chart that shows the decrease of violent actions and crimes over many years. The writer also says that violent game sales have been on the rise, but the quantity of violent crimes has been decreasing and is still decreasing today. This website also states that no study has ever Don’t Go Back During Winter Break by Ken Huang During the winter break, there were a lot of international students who went back to their home countries. Students spent 15 hours or more to go back to China or Korea, they spent two weeks having fun with their family, and then they spent 12 hours for going to America. Now, here is the question: does this travelling influence students in a good way or not? Personally, I don’t go back to China during winter break if my parents don’t ask. It doesn’t help me at all. Let’s consider the math problem. Students spend 27 hours total on the airplane, and they need to go to and from home by car, which also takes at least 1-3 hours. That means we need to spend 30 hours on the trip, plus the sleeping time, time to take our luggage, and the time we pass through the customs. That means we need to spend about 48 hours on traveling alone. Is it really worth it to spend one seventh of the time for the trip in order to have 12 days of fun with your family? Also, the trip makes you very
China, students also have to take a monthly test and a half-semester test. As for the finals, they should be ones that contain the most and also the ones which affect our GPA most. Why do we have these tests? First of all, the functions of the finals are to determine our current level, check if we remember the things we learned, and to report to ourselves. The finals are testing our general grasp of course knowledge. Since the finals contain the knowledge points from the last semester. In addition, it is also an ability test, such as the ability to solve the problem, to manage time, to find the answer through other ways, to get over the boring contexts, and also to face the challenges. I think the best part of it is that it requires you to improve you time management. The finals always last for a long time; plus because it covers a lot, we
have to learn to divide our time into different parts to face different specific problems. Usually, when we have already experienced a lot of finals, we can know that what we should do first is to observe all the questions and judge each one’s level, and to make a further plan by deciding which should be tackled before the others. From this angle, finals are not only academic tests, but also necessary practice for our lives. In conclusion, I think the finals are necessary because of their basic functions in the academic structure and also their further meaning for our lives and later experiences. So I suggest everybody in PA to treat the next finals with a careful and diligent attitude, and to summarize the challenges we faced and the mistakes we made in the last ones, so that we can do even better next time and achieve our goal by our hard work.
tired, and you want to sleep in the morning and become wakeful in the evening. It will take at least one day for each direction to change your biological clock to be the same time as the local time. That means one day of your trip will be wasted on the way back to your hometown and one day when you get back to the U.S. Now, you only have 10 days. Do you still think going back to your country is a good idea? On the other hand, if you stay, you can learn many more things in the U.S. than in your home country. English is the second language for international students, which means we need to study English much harder than native students, and we need to spend our time on it. Winter break and spring break are really good chances to study English, especially TOEFL and SAT preparation. Some Chinese students might say, “We can study it in China, and it is better to study it there,” but I can tell you that there is not enough time for doing this. Almost every TOEFL, ACT and SAT class session in China is 15 days (especially New Oriental), which means you don’t have enough time to take these classes during the winter break.
My recommendation for international students is to stay in the U.S. instead of going back to your home countries so that you can learn more things. If you do, what you learned can help your improvement of English. Being in America is for getting a better education.
shown that violent games result in actual shootings or events. A website called ProCon states that violent games help relieve stress. If people are angry, they feel better while playing violent video games because they feel more powerful and enjoy their time playing games. The website gives proof from a study that separated people into two groups. One group got to play violent games over the weekend and the other group didn’t get to do anything over the weekend. The results show that the group who didn’t do anything was the most aggressive. They added another group who played non-violent games. The results still showed that the people who played violent games were the least aggressive while the group who didn’t play was still the most aggressive. The website also shows that only 1 out of 5 school shootings have been related to violent games. Another website called Raisesmartkids indicates that violent games teach kids a lot of
skills including following instructions, management, planning, situational awareness, accuracy, concentration, memory, mapping, teamwork, how to respond to challenges and take risks, among others. All this different research shows that violent games are not bad for kids or adults. In PA, my survey shows that 100% of the students I surveyed said that violent games were not bad for people. My survey also shows that 90% of the students I interviewed said that their favorite game was violent. So PA’s population already knows this. Violent video games can have a positive impact on people. Violent video games are not the cause of massacres or any other violent shootings or happenings. In many situations, violent video games are actually good for people. Violent video games may seem like they pose a threat to society, but research shows that video games are actually beneficial.
Submissions Welcome! The Echolocator welcomes your letters, comics, opinon pieces, artwork, fiction, poetry, photographs, and more! Please send them to
[email protected] or give them to Ms. Corwin in Room 21 0!
The Echolocator Staff Reporters & Editors: Sam Du Sando Feng Rooney Gao Ken Huang Andrew Lee Lily You Adviser: Ms. Kelly Corwin
COMICS! First Aid by Sando Feng
Final Exams by Rooney Gao
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Letters to the Editors
Dear Ken, I read your article in The Echolocator recently. There are a lot of qualities to your article that attract me and also there are some items that I want to suggest to you. To tell the truth, I really like the topic of your article—“Getty Villa, Learning For the Students.” I also think it is attractive to everyone. My favorite part in this article is the interview of Ms. Saito. Firstly, you put a description before Ms. Saito’s dialogue so that makes your interview look more novel. I used to think that is how I should put a sentence before my interviewing. Thanks for your ideas, I think it will be useful for my article. Next, let me give you some suggestions about your article. First, I think your intro paragraph is too general, and almost all the journalists write intro paragraph like yours, so I think you need to put some specific things in your first paragraph to grasp the interest of the readers. Maybe you can put some beautiful description of the Getty Villa in your first paragraph or you can also put an interview from the students who went to the Getty Villa this year or last year. And here is a small suggestion that I want to give you. The sentences that you use to introduce me and Judy are the same. You can try to put something different to describe me and Judy. I think it will make the readers read comfortable. Of course, you are able to interview more people who went to the Getty Villa and put their quotes in your article. These are some suggestions from me to your article. And I am hoping you can create more specific articles in the next newspaper. Best wishes, Lily You
MORE PA OPINIONS
Watch Your Language! By Sando Feng It is the third year of Pacific Academy. The population of both students and teachers has grown. Starting from the first year with 24 students, now we have almost 80 students. Because most of Pacific Academys students are straight from China, there are some problems and advice I want to point out. First, students should use English during school days. Second, we should be careful with the language we are using because of cultural differences. I have seen it every day that students talk a bunch of Chinese during class. The purpose of our parents’ sending us here is to lean English. As the saying goes, “Practice makes perfect.” If people don’t practice, how are they going to get better? I believe if students at our school all use English in contact with each other, the students’ English level will improve much more quickly. As we know, there are lots of cultural differences between China and America. So sometimes there are problems created by the cultural difference. In China, students have different rules compared to America. There
have been times when what students did really made their teachers angry. Also, teachers might say something that students might disagree with. So, both teachers and students should pay more attention to what they should and should not do. Once I remember that students were talking about how differently people think about farmers in America and China. In China when people mention the word farmer, it usually means low class people. But somehow the word farmer in America has a totally different meaning. That created a lot of misunderstanding. So what is really important is that both teachers and students have to be careful of cultural difference. There are many little problems created during school every day. People have to be careful. Even one word can make others angry. So my advice is, before you say something, think about it. Always try to find the best way to show your opinion, so there will not be problems created by avoidable misunderstandings.
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Quick or slow? By Lily You In today’s society, everything is concentrated on speed. To take the highway, to eat fast food… Is fast the best? Slow is not bad. It also has its own attractive place. You appreciate the scenery when you walk slowly along the way, taste the food slowly, enjoying the unique experience of the food. So, slow is not bad. I think both extremely quick and extremely slow are not good for us. We should find a balance point between fast and slow. If you eat too fast, you will get indigestion. And if you do things too slowly, you will miss out on something. William Li, an excellent tennis player in PA, said, “Standing in front of the swift wind, it will be possible to get the victory. If you have the slow step, you will always be lost and then you will be very difficult to keep up the rhythm. The one hundred and ten meter hurdles Olympic champion Liu Xiang won the prize because of his fast speed. So I’d prefer to choose the quick life.” Henry Wang has the same idea with William Li. But Judy Zhu has a different opinion from William. “For example, during the exam from the end of the test is only left a short period time, most of the students finished the exam and they check their answer slowly and carefully.
More COMICS!
Finally, they get a good grade for their exam, so I think slow is better than the quick,” Zhu said. Both Amy Zhou and Justin Ge think the slow life is much better than the quick life because they can relax and learn from mistakes. There is a saying: “The person who is chasing the deer cannot discover the hill.” It means if you pay more attention to swift things, you will miss some beautiful things. There is also a story from a magazine about a PhD who finds work in a company. He does not choose to attain the highest office level at first, but he chooses to work from the basic level. After a lot of time, he increases his ability and becomes successful because he learns from his mistakes and fixes them. He chooses the slow way to become successful. If he chose to be the CEO quickly, and then he will lose the chance because he is not prepared. This is also a good example of the slow life. Some people like riding a motorcycle, like the feeling of chasing the wind; some people like walking and looking forward to the comfortable life. In fact, fast or slow is each person’s choice. Things in life are not easy to master. We cannot pursue speed blindly, but we also cannot lag behind blindly! Each person must find the suitable speed for herself to create her own perfect life.
"I don't like this kind of flash" By Ken Huang
Chinese...Food? By Sam Du
Government Pigs By Sando Feng
Phoebe Pan Honored By Ken Huang
Phoebe Pan was granted admission to the prestigious YoungArts organization in 2014, Phoebe in Orange County Register January which, according to their website (youngart.org), “identifies and supports the next generation of artists, and contributes to the cultural vitality of the nation by investing in the artistic development of talented young artists in the literary, performing, and visual and design arts.” Phoebe Pan described how YoungArts
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works: “YoungArts is a national program that supports young artists through donations, scholarships, masterclasses, and connections. YoungArts Week is at the beginning of every year where the selected YoungArts finalists go to Miami, Florida to participate in masterclasses and performances. There are several ‘disciplines,’ including Classical music, Jazz, Voice, Cinematic/Design/Visual Arts, Theatre, and Dance.” “They contacted me at the end of last year and invited me to come to Miami to be part of YoungArts Week. I was really honored and excited to participate because I knew that it would be a wonderful opportunity for me to have classes, meet talented people, and celebrate the arts! I think around 170 finalists
came to YoungArts Week, out of a pool of about 11,000 applicants,” Pan said. “After YoungArts Week, I've been doing a lot of local competitions and performances. I'm still keeping in contact with many of the wonderful, talented young artists and musicians that I met there,” Pan added. She thinks about YoungArt in this way: “YoungArts Week was?amazing?and I truly enjoyed my time there. It was incredibly humbling and awesome to see so many teens and young adults out there who love the arts just as much as I do. I had the chance to perform, have lessons, and become friends with a lot of amazing people. Sorry I'm saying ‘amazing’ and ‘wonderful’ so much, but it really was a great opportunity!”
New Student This Semester!
and likes hurdling. “Although this school is small, it has a lot of advantages attracted me. I like the study atmosphere By Lily You & Rooney Gao in this school. The students in this school are super Keilantra Yan friendly. I can join this big family quickly,” Edward “Although this school is a little bit small, I think the said. The language is a problem for Zhao. “Up to students and teachers are super friendly,” says Keilantra now, ELD is difficult for me. Too much strange Yan. After winter break, PA gets a new student called words make me dizzy. So I make a goal for this Keilantra Yan who comes from Zhejiang province. semester, I will improve my vocabulary. For Keilantra Yan is 17 years old and in 10th grade now. “I instance, when I watch the English movie and am good at singing, and I want to major in music in discover some strange words, I can write them down Berkley College of Music in the future. This is the first Edward Zhao Keilantra Yan and research in the dictionary. So it will be a big time I come to America, and I think my biggest challenge to memorize them.” challenge is language, so this semester I will improve my language. TOEFL also makes me feel confused, but I will try my best to get a good Clyde Zhou Another new student is also good at playing grade,” Keilantra said. basketball. He is called Clyde Zhou. 15-year-old Zhou When asked if she likes America or not, she expressed that she likes comes from Henan Province. He is in eighth grade at America pretty well: “I like the environment here. I think this is a PA. Zhou said, “I was attracted by the good chance for me to steel myself.” After that, she also said that she used to environment so I go to U.S to study. There are too live with her parents all the time; however, for right now, she has to do many people in China, so it’s difficult for me to get everything on her own. “I think it’s a good chance for me to experience into a good college. I think American educational some hard times and a new process of my life, which is without the help system is more suitable for me. In America, people pay from my parents.” more attention on individual potential. For example, I Leo Chung like playing basketball. I believe the basketball will This semester, PA welcomed an 18-year-old new student who was born Clyde Zhou help me to choose an appropriate university for me. Of in Ulsan, Korean, but has already been living in America for ten years, since he came here in 2004 course, it is easier than China to get more chances.” Zhou thinks that studying in the new country is challenging. “Until to now, I think Ms. for elementary school. His name is Leo Chung. Right now he is a senior at PA. He has not adapted Hsu’s class is difficult for me. She speaks too fast to understand and to the schedule here. Previously, when he was in memorize, so I should practice my listening to adapt this kind of Irvine High School, he had 4 classes everyday, and problems,” Clyde added. each class lasted 1.5 hours, but currently, he has six Vivian Zou Vivian Zou, is a sophomore from Taiwan. So far, 50-minute classes every day. “I think that’s what I she felt she has already adapted to everything here. need to get used to,” he said. On the day of his Vivian said her parents chose PA for her, but she Leo Chung interview, he said he didn’t have any good friends didn’t know the reason. As for America, she was not or favorite teachers yet. “You know, I just came able to tell any opinion. “I had no sense of this here yesterday,” he said. nation,” she said. Currently, she doesn’t have any As for the further activities, he said that the one he anticipated most best friend or favorite teacher since she came just a was the food bank one. In addition, when he heard that there is a guitar few weeks ago. When asked what activity she looks club at PA, he said he would plan to join this club. “I can play guitar,” forward to most, she said, “I don’t have any Chung said. Vivian Zou expectation of this school’s activities.” In the same Edward Zhao way, she didn’t know which club to join or what clubs “The unfamiliar environment helps me be independently, I am able to do more things that I dependence my parents before,” said Edward Zhao, PA has. So far, no experience or event here has influenced her a lot. one of the new students who is from Beijing and is good at basketball
Student of the Month: Rado Jiang
January, 26, 1995. Rado said, “I came here for better education, free speech, and ideas.” Rado By Andrew Lee On January 10, 2014, Rado Jiang won also said, “Being a senior makes me feel free and I feel that it gives me more space and the Student of the Month of December. This month, there was only 1 student of the month. freedom.” Rado’s dream school is UC Berkley, and his dream career is being an entrepreneur. Rado was described by Mr. Corpus as a “Student who is impressive in many ways. He Rado doesn’t think that he did anything special is an exemplary student, an interesting thinker, to be chosen. “I acted like myself. I didn’t do a responsible citizen, and a bold adventurer. He anything special. I was just being myself.” As student of the month, Rado said, “I would is to be commended for his engaging absolutely love to become student of the month personality as well as his humble demeanor. again. I feel very good about being student of Indeed. His sense of humor and good nature make Pacific Academy a more vibrant place.” the month, and if I got the student of the year Rado was born in Shanghai, China on award, that would be fantastic.” When asked
for advice for the students in Pacific Academy, Rado said, “I think that students have to work hard when they are working and play hard when they are playing.”
Rado at the Christmas Party
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New Marathon in Next a TOEFL test this term. My mother Big Bear! First Activity of will not worry about my grades in the New Semester Semester By Lily You On January 27, 2014, PA ushers in the new semester. Students have new study goals in the new semester. No matter how students did last semester, it is history for them. For the new semester, everyone is standing at the same beginning point again. Most students have their own study goal for the new semester. William Yang, the Student of the Month of November, said, “I will take the TOEFL in the new semester. I hope I will get 90 points for my test. I will try my best to improve my English quickly. In the end, I wish I can be happy in everyday.” Henry Wang said, “This semester I will improve my speaking and listening comprehension, because I will take
the next term.” Of course, some students think that school has changed in many ways. “I agree that the school has changed a lot compared to last year. Last year we only had fifty students. The increase of students in PA made a huge difference, because more students means that we have more activities held in school. I like the new changes,” Jasmine Wang, who is the co-president of ASB, said. Angel Fan said, “In new semester, I will be the the Student of Month again and study how to improve vocabularies from William Yang.” Both Tom Yu and Tiger Chen will study hard for their GPA. Tiger Chen said, “I will improve my grades and make all my courses close to A+.”
Paint Ball Preview
For the courts, students will have different ones to try. Basically, they are all models of different landforms, which contain jungle, city, mountain, and so on. In the same court, students can choose different types of the game, which means they can choose different final goals for each match. They can either get everyone in the other team out of the match by shooting them, or they can capture the only flag. The most important rule is that whenever a player has been shot as shown by the paint on the outfit, he or she has to quit immediately, in order to keep this game fair. Only 18 students will be able to go. Students must sign up by paying a $20 deposit to Ms. Monica by February 7.
By Rooney Gao The teacher, Mr. Tran, who is also PA’s activity organizer, plans a field trip of a paint ball game for students to join in on February 15, and it will last from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The company that provides courts and other equipment is located in another city, which is a 40 minute car ride from Irvine. The price will be $80 for the whole day’s activity which includes the paint balls, the basic protective outfits, and CO2, which is used to shoot the balls out. Also, if anyone wants to protect better and reduce the sense of pain, he or she can add an extra fee to rent a strengthened protective cover.
Pacific Academy’s Latest Food Bank Trip
By Sando Feng On Feb 28, 2014, most of the Pacific Academy students went to the Second Harvest Food Bank. The purpose of this trip is to organize the food into boxes. Students met at school at 10:30 and had their third period classes. Then students had their lunch around 11:20. After the lunch, students got on the bus and started their trip to the food bank. The teachers who went on the trip are Mr. Bennett, Ms. Saito, Ms. Irene Yu, Ms. Kachigan, Mr. Lathrop, Ms. Han, and Ms. Amy Yu. Lily came to Pacific Academy just this year, so it is her first time to work at the food bank. When asked what she did at the food bank, she said, “I divide different things in to boxes with Amy. There were cans, candy, chips, and drink.” When asked what she thinks about the activity, she said, “The time was too short. But it was very meaningful. Because we helped weak people by the labor. Although, we are student, so we cannot donate money. But we can offer help to them.” David Yin was part of the trip last year. When asked what his opinion was about the difference between this year’s and last year’s trip, he said, “I think there is few difference between this year’s food bank and last year’s one. There are only two difference. One is that we separate in two group to work. The other one is I got two cookie during the break time in this year. I really want to go next year because it is one of the most interesting things in school year.” When ask about his feeling of the activity, Ted Liu said, “I felt so tired after doing food bank, but I think it is interesting. We can get some activities, and it helps the people who don’t have P.E. class to get enough exercise. We can also get some community service hours by doing this. I learned how to organize things from this experience.”
by Ken Huang Some of the students in Pacific Academy are going on the Big Bear trip for three days after the week of the final test, from January 27, 2014 to January 29, 2014. They will go to Big Bear Mountain and stay there, and they will go snowboarding or skiing on the first and second day. Then they will come back on the third day. It is the first trip in the semester, and school wants them to get relaxed
falling down from the peak is very painful,” Sam Du, who also joined the trip, said. “I fell down when I tried to go from the peak, and I hurt my arm. My ski is a little bit broken, too. In that time, a first aid responder saw me, and he help me get down to the peak,” Du added. During the interview, another student called Kevin Lin, who joined this year’s and last year’s trips, said “We lived in the same place, playing in the same place, and eating same food as last year. But the only thing changed is I don’t need
Yaphets Lu is playing sled with his friends!
after the finals. Rooney Gao, who joined the Big Bear trip, said, “The generally is fun, and I got injured on my wrist, waist and knees. I skied from the peak at the second day. I fell down seriously bad. I rolled all the way down the slope.” Gao also said, “Sam also want to try to ski from the peak, but he fell down even harder. Finally he was questioned by the first aid when he get down from the peak.” “Big Bear is so beautiful, and it is really cold. We went to the Big Bear Lake in the second day, but the view is not really good because there is a lot of fog. The house we live is much cleaner than the last time. By the way,
to smell someone’s gas.” Lin also said “I saw a person ski from the peak. But the point is, he didn’t know how to slow down. He hit the fence at the end, and a role of fence was broken.” Tiger Chen said, “It’s really hard to control the snowboard, so I fell down many times. I tried every single way of falling down. The hardest one is that I fell down from the peak like what Rooney Gao and Sam Du did. That is really painful.” When I interviewed Chen, Erika Saito, who is a teacher at Pacific Academy, said, “I heard that Tiger Chen and Johnny’s phones were lost, and someone found and returned it.”
Ken went to the trip last year as well. When asked what are the differences between last year’s and this year’s food bank trip, he said, “Last year we did all the work in one group, but this year we separate in to two groups.” When asked which one he prefer, he said, “I prefer last year. It was more fun. This year’s is little boring. We did most of the jobs by ourselves. There wasn’t enough communication. Also we got asked not to wear earphones, this make the trip even more boring.” When asked what he thinks is the purpose of this trip, he said, “I think the purpose of this trip is to give the students an opportunity to have some service experiences. It also can give students some community service hours.”
Gary Wang glances at the food in box.
Please Take Care of China’s Lungs
7
Also, haze will cause upper respiratory tract infection, bronchial asthma, conjunctivitis, and even lung cancer. Kenzo Ao, whose hometown is Jiangxi, said, “The smelling of my hometown’s air is not good as Irvine’s air. My hometown’s one can irritate my nose, and I can feel that there were some small dust in the air. It made my nose hurt and uncomfortable.” Ao also said, “The hardest haze is really bad. For example, if you live in a building nearby another building, you couldn’t even see the building across to yours.” “My hometown had a really bad haze. You couldn’t see anything further than ten meter. For really like the students and teachers here. I really appreciate how so many of the teachers are able to maintain great senses of humor despite having so much to do every day. I have made some wonderful friends while working here. For students, I have had an amazing experience watching them grow. Some of the students are amazing people, and they have inspired me to become a better person myself.” When asked what her goal at Pacific Academy is, she said, "My personal goal is to become
example, even if you stand in front of Dayan Tower, you couldn’t see anything at all. Sometime, you couldn’t even see someone face to facem,” Ted Liu, whose hometown had a really bad haze, said. “Dust is much more than the fog, and I think it is more like an unmovable sandstorm,” Liu added Tom Liu, whose hometown is Beijing, said, “Haze doesn’t have a lot of difference with sandstorm, the people live in Beijing used to defense this kind of weather. In Beijing, people used to go out with a mask. If you tried one time, you will see many little dust and sand on your mask, and it happen both during sandstorm and haze. That’s why I don’t feel any difference.” someone who can find peace, if possible happiness, in any situation. And in regards to PA, my goal there is to become better at time management. I feel like this is something that students can relate to. I feel like there is always so much to do and I want give everything my all , but I feel like I’m always trying to catch up. For her goal for her ELD classes, she said, "My goal is for students to leave my class with more confidence to communicate in English in any setting, in or outside of school."
with his church choir. For high school, King went to Booker T. High School. King did not formally By Andrew Lee Martin Luther King, Jr. changed the lives of graduate the high school, skipping both ninth and twelfth grades. King entered Morehouse College at all Americans, especially African-Americans. the age of 15 and later entered Crozer Theological Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American pastor, Seminary. At the age of 19, King was ordained to activist, humanitarian, and leader in the AfricanAmerican Civil Rights movement. Martin Luther the Baptist ministry. At the age of 22, King entered Boston University for graduate studies. King King, Jr. is so important that he was recognized with a holiday named after him. On November 2, married Coretta Scott and settled in Montgomery, Alabama. When he graduated, he received the 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed a law to make the holiday official. Martin Luther King, Jr. Doctorate of Philosophy in Systematic Theology. Soon, he joined the boycott to help Rosa Parks. On was and still is a significant role model to December 5, he was elected president of everybody. On January 15, 1929, King was born. His Montgomery Improvement Association. This made King the official spokesperson for the boycott. After parents, Reverend and Mrs. Martin Luther King raised King in Atlanta, Georgia where there was a a while, the Supreme Court ruled that bus lot of prejudice. King was a middle child between segregation is illegal, which was a victory for the boycott. an older sister and a younger brother. King sang
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a very successful man. His skill in presenting speeches convinced many people to finally give blacks some freedom. His “I Have a Dream” speech is one of the most significant speeches of all because it captured many hearts and showed all ofAmerica a future of racial equality. Many people were moved by his speeches. Kings inspiration came from Mahatma Gandhi’s success, which gave Indians freedom from British control. One of King’s inspirational quotes is, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” This is how King became a good leader: He had faith in himself and in others. King is significant in American history because he was an amazing role model. He made people realize that race doesn’t matter, but that the content of a person’s heart does.
by Ken Huang Haze is a kind of weather. It is formed by a lot of fog and dust. Haze will happen in the place that the environment is bad and where there is a lot of dust and fog in the air. In China, haze happened in a lot of places last year. According to Tencent News, haze happened on October 20, 2013 near Shanghai and Beijing, and it continues to happen in different places, especially in southern cities, now. People can’t go out of their houses, or haze will hurt them because lots of dust will come into their lungs and make them sick. If they must go out, they need to wear a mask even if it doesn’t work really well.
Ms.Hsu
By Sando Feng Jasmine Hsu has been here at Pacific Academy for three years. She is an ESL teacher teaching English as a second language to students. Having tutored since her college days at UC Irvine, she taught English at John F. Kennedy High School in La Palma, California. When she was asked what she likes about teaching here at Pacific Academy, she said, “I
Martin Luther King Jr.
Silliest Holiday Gift Contest!
1st Place Winner - Intermediate Category
1st Place Winner - Beginner Category
By Jane Zhao
By Tom Liu
Silly holiday gift challenge: Muffin Top
Silliest holiday gift challenge: Pacifier
This gift is called “Muffin Top.” It is a muffin or cupcake cup. You can bake cakes in it. This is funny because it look like a fat baby. I think the material is plastic. If you touch this, it is very hard. I think it is made to look like jeans. The color is blue. Also, this is useful. For anyone who see it for the first time, it will make them laugh. I imagine that it smells plastic. I choose this because it has a double meaning. A “Muffin Top” is what we call the piece and stomach that hangs over light pants. This is also a muffin top because it is for muffins. If you want to give friends a silly gift, you can give this to them. In my opinion, I think this gift is not just a really silly gift, it is cute and cool. Everyone likes holiday food like muffins and cupcakes but now they can enjoy eating it and laugh together.
2nd Place Winner - Beginner Category Silly holiday gift challenge: Hand Soap By Jerry Liu
This is a soap. It look like a hand, so it is called hand soap. You can see this is very real. This color look like your skin. It has five fingers. The soap can sit on the table by itself. The soap surface is very smooth. It is a good soap. You can choose three different smells. It has lemon, orange and apple three different smells. You can use it to clean your hand. If you want you can use it to clean your clothes. I think this is silly because when you use this soap to clean your hands you can see three hands. I think is amazing.
My silly gift is the stupidest pacifier. It is made of plastic, and it looks very funny, because it is pink. And it has very large teeth; and it feels very smooth. Between the teeth there is a pink tongue. There is circle on the tongue, making this tongue look very ugly. I like it because I think one of my friends is the perfect person to use this pacifier. It does not smell, it feels very smooth. So I like it very much. Most students are teens. If they use the silly pacifier, they will look very funny and silly. Some children use pacifiers, but those are beautiful. This one is very ugly. This mouth made the pacifier feel ugly; it is like an old and dark mouth. So I think this is very interesting. It is a silly gift
Honorable Mention
Silly holiday gift challenge: Fish Pencil Case By Jiye Yoon
Honorable Mention also goes to Yolanda Wang for
This is the silliest gift. It is a pencil case, but it look like a realistic fish. The outside is just a fish, and the inside is pretty nasty. The inside shows the fish’s blood, bone, and "Silly meat. This pencil case doesn’t have a smell, but I think it looks should have a fishy smell. Also this one made holiday gift out of vinyl, so its texture is more similar with real fish. It can be useful, challenge: because all students need a pencil case. Also I saw a video of Korean Butt students play with this pencil case in a funny way. They play act like they Station"! selling fish. That’s why I choose this gift as the silliest holiday gift.
Folktales 8
Ms. Greenfield's Sheltered History class has been studying Folktales and PowerPoint presentations. As part of this unit, students have written their own Folktales, which include six essential elements that define this genre: a problem, solution, hero, villian or evil character, magic and a moral lesson. Then, they turned their stories into PowerPoint presentations and shared them with Ms. Hyde's class last week. Here are a few samples of their work:
Family
you for medicine,” said Tim. Lux agree that idea. First question is “Why does the sun go up in the sky every day?” The other one is, “Why does the ocean lie flat?” Lux knows the answers, so the boys loose very sadly because they have no idea who to help their parents. Their parents are sick and will die. Tim and Terry walk in the forest. An Elf finds them and gives guidance to find a magic tree. The magic tree said,“I can give you a magic gold fruit, but you should give me water for 50 days. Tim and Terry said. “If my parent can be healthy we can give you 50 days water.” Then Tim and Terry go back home. The fruit helps the parent get well. The Moral of story is parents are very important than anything.
The Best Medical Skill
Near this person have five soldiers and a old man. These five soldiers thought James was a bad person, so they caught him. Jack have the best medical skill so he thought this young man have problem in his brain. Sometimes this guy would faint and fall down. James said “I’m a doctor. I know this guy is ill. I can help you treat him.” The old man named Bob. He was a high-raking officer in China. He already found lots of famous doctors to treat his son, but nobody could do it. He thought this young teenager (James) could know what’s wrong with his son. “ Maybe he can have some way to help my son .” James put his hand on the young guy’s head. The young man’s illness almost recover. James give Bob a prescript. When the old man go back home They use the prescription. It help the young man recover. Bob thought James was a very good man. He helped James became powerful and rich. After six years, James became a very rich and powerful man in the world. He bought two super yacht. The moral of this story is If you are a good person you will have good chance to be successful. the bank. They bought a gun and learn how used gun, they bought the mask to put on the face. Later they came big city named London, wanted to rob the bank, they prepared a lot of plan could safely escape. They sat in the bank, ready to rob a bank. But before they begin, two people with guns came in the bank. This two people want rob the bank, Tom and Ted thought they need to help them, and they thought that robbery was very bad. So they were ready to change. They threatened them with a gun, two bad guys cannot do anything. So they caught
By Ted Liu Long ago, in Ancient Greece have two teenagers named Terry and Tim. Terry is a clever, brave, and naughty boy. Tim is a timid and good boy. They are best friend. One day their parents get sick because they ate bad food. They heard that on the other side of mountain have a magic psychic who gives medicine. Lux is an old woman. She has long grey hair and evil heart. Terry and Tim really want to help their parents be healthy. They go to find Lux. Lux tells them. “I can’t give you free medicine. You should pay for this.” “We don’t have money, so we can’t pay of you,” said Terry. “Can we play a guessing game?” said Tim. “We give you two questions. If all is right we will pay
Jerry Liu A long time ago in Shenzhen, China was a small village. A teenager named James lived there. He was very poor but he had the best medical skill in the world. He wanted to get a job but had a problem. One day, he treated a young man. One coincidence helped him be powerful and rich. James had a interview in the hospital. He said “I have good skill to treat. I want to become a doctor.” After that he only needed wait the ending. One man named Jack, also want to get this job. His father was rich and powerful. He was a spoiled rich kid. Jack gave money to the hospital leader. Jack said “I want to get this job If you can help me I will give you these money.” Jack got this job in the hospital. The hospital told James he was too young to get this job. James walked in a forest and found some special plants because he needed these plants to make medicine. He saw a person about twenty one years old.
The Lucky Bank Robber
By JT Lu A long time ago, in the very small and poor town, there was a boy name Tom. At this time everybody know the boy was very strong. He can use one hand to move the car far away. But his family was very poor. He need more money to change his family life. In the family only have the mother. His only advantage was big powers. He found a friend to rob the bank. The friend name was Ted. Ted lived very poor town, so he like money too much. Later they came in the big city wanted to rob
The Tiger and the Son
By Tom Liu Long ago, Shang Dong China, there was house in the forest. There lived an old hunter and his son. The old man was an experienced hunter. He had hunting bows and he could kill dangerous animals. The son only liked to play and was not experienced to kill animals. One day, old hunter went out to hunt animals. Then, the hunter told the son, “Don’t go out of the house.” Next, the son went to go out to play. He didn’t bring his weapon and water and even his food. Then he went to the forest. He thought the forest was very interesting. Then he saw a tiger. The tiger was very strong, but it was sleep. The son was very afraid, he wanted to turn back his body and run home. Then he stopped, because he heard the tiger said, “Hello. I think you are delicious food”. The son trembled his body, and he ran very fast.
The Best Friend
Kenzo Ao A long time ago in Jiang Xi, China, was a small city. A boy named Kenzo lived with his family. He was very open and caring, and he knew how to care for other people. If his friends are so sad he will let them become happy. Also if his friends have some problems, he would help them. So he has many friends. Another boy named Bruce lived with his grandmother. He was an orphan. He was very unsociable and eccentric, so he didn’t have any friends. One day Kenzo went to school with his friend. Bruce was not happy because Bruce didn’t want Kenzo to have other friends. Bruce just want Kenzo only to be his one friend. Bruce was unhappy, and he went to talk to Kenzo. Bruce said, ‘‘You are my only friend and you are my best friend and you? You are talk with other people.” Bruce was very angry. Kenzo wanted to say something. Then Bruce broke his conversation. Bruce said, ‘‘You are not my friend anymore.” Then he ran home. Kenzo was didn’t move just saw Bruce ran out of school. When Bruce got home he was so sad because he lost his best friend, Kenzo. Just at same time a spirit came out from Bruce’s brain. Bruce said, “Who are you?” “I’m a female spirit. I want to tell you something true,” the spirit said. Bruce was amazed looked at her. “You need change your personality you are lost you best friend Kenzo because you are selfish. If you keep doing that, you will not have friends anymore,” The spirit said. “How can I change?” Bruce asked. “You need became more open and caring just like Kenzo. If you change your personality you will have a lot of friends, and became more confident,” the spirit said. After spirit finish talking she disappear. Bruce was sit on sofa and thought what just spirit said. The next day Bruce was absolutely change. Bruce became more confident and open caring person. The smile appear in his face. He ran to Kenzo’s house. He told Kenzo what happen at Yesterday. Kenzo was very touched. He was very happy Bruce change his personality. They embrace together Kenzo said: “We are still best friends.” Finally they are both laugh at same time. the two bad guys and they got a job a policeman. The lesson is even if you are very poor, you have a chance to change your life.
The tiger chased the son. He look a big tree. When he neared the tree, the tiger bite the son’s leg. He fell, the son saw the tiger will kill him. He was much feared. He regretted not listen to his father talk. He not want to die. He said,” who can help me?” Then he looked at a big magic tree. The tree opened a magic door in his trunk, the son jumped into the room, and the magic door close. He saw the tree had many branch. Next happed a very magic thing. The magic tree used his branch to hit the tiger. Then tiger run away. After that .the son went back his house. He was cry to his father, because he loses one leg. He said, “I met tiger.” Then his father went to the forest and brought his bow and some food. He found the tiger and killed it. He took his son’s leg, and used medicine to treat his son. Then the son had two leg. He was very happy. he said “I will listen you talking.” The son became a very good hunter. Because he listened to his father talking. He got his father’s experience. He looked after his old father.
