Tuesday, November 4, 2008

The First O Level

It will be my first O Level tomorrow, Express Chinese. So today I felt obliged to have a holistic revision on Chinese. To revive my capability of apprehension and appreciation of Chinese prose and passages, I selected some well-written pieces from famous writers to read. I was so fortunate to find some passages which were chosen as texts of my textbooks in China. It was like meeting old friends, surprising, exciting with indiscribable comfort. Rereading masterpieces of Zhu Ziqing,Ba Jin, Zong Pu and Xiao Hong let me go through the sadness-ridden period of Cultural Revolution all over again. Living in this democratic society for almost one year, it is shocking to revive those scenes of terror.

In a strong desire to lighten my leadened heart, I turned towards Zao Bao Popcorn and indulge into the subtle scent of old newpaper. My literary journey with Wu Qingkang, You Jin and Wong Yanping proved to be enriching, though at noon I was almost intoxicated by the ink of newspapers.

In order to devote the whole day to my Chinese, I tuned the radio to 93.3FM and had a sweet nap in the rhythms of Chinese pop music. After the siesta, I felt refreshing. For the first time of my life, I thought it was necessary to do some practices on Chinese comprehension, so I pulled out a thick pile of exercises and sticked to the last-minute revision. I almost fainted before I even finished. The questions are not difficult or weird ones, but the truth is: the easier they are, the higher the possibility that you will get them wrong. I had to continuously encourage my self in order that I was not disillusioned by my mistakes.

However, I did not stick to the end, anyway. Before my dinner, I got bored with Chinese and could not resist the temptation to read "Princess Academy", and I read the beginning of the first chapter----

And that proved to be my undoing, because since then I did not want to put it down~

But I think I will still read some model compositions before the exam. After all, after tomorrow there will be no need to do Chinese exercises and we will even be fined for speaking Chinese in our class. Who knows?

P.S. All the best to your Chinese O Level for everyone taking the exam!