CAMBRIDGE O LEVEL ENGLISH
LANGUAGE 1123
ESSAYS
Slow and steady
At first thought it might seem like Emma and Ella are best buddies.
They make such spectacular chemistry at the court; they must know
each other really well. However, the real story is completely different.
The only reason why these two prodigies expertly keep the crowd
excited throughout the entire game is because of their incredible
talent and skills. Every single student of East Lansing High School is
aware about the rivalry between these frenemies.
Ella is a naturally gifted athlete. She barely needs to practice to be the
top scorer of the match. Her physique is absolutely perfect for scoring
fifteen dunks per game and she can effortlessly dazzle her opponents.
Every time Ella gets the basketball in her hands, all the players stop
right in their tracks to see what she would do next. They know what to
expect from this rising star. Kids line up after all her games to take
autographs and selfies or just to hug this future legend. Ella has been
getting more and more attention lately, as it’s her senior year in high
school. Her followers can not wait to see her play in the and later in
the wNBA. This makes Ella feel proud and she can’t stop thinking how
great she is.
Emma has been able to come all this way just because of her
workaholic and discipline character. She is not the most talented
player in her team, but definitely the hardest working one. Emma is
the first one in practice and she stays at the gym long after everyone
has left. This skinny, five feet tall girl works out twice, takes five
hundred shots and practices all her twenty moves every single day.
The sad part is people don’t seem to notice her as much as she
deserves; they think Emma doesn’t have any potential and anyone
could be at her level just by practicing a bit more. However Emma is
not the type of a person who would give so easily.
As each day goes by, Ella’s pride confidence keeps increasing and her
performance slowly gets worse. On the other hand, Emma stays
focused and she’s got her hopes high; she continues to get better
everyday. Just a few years later, when both the girls are old enough to
compete at America’s number one league, Emma is forced to play in
the second division whereas Ella is one the top pics at the NBA draft.
Memories
For the first few months of sixth grade, I used to lay awake on my bed
until way past midnight, thinking about my extraordinary experiences
at Glencairn, and I still spend hours recalling those memories. My last
year at elementary school was definitely the most perfect period of my
fourteen years in this world. Each day brought something new for me.
When I stepped in our school bus the very first day, I realized that
Glencairn was not like any other school. Mrs. Ware, The principal rides
the school bus on the first day of school to welcome the students and
makes sure every new student finds a friend. There’s a separate
welcoming committee to help the newbies and a buddy bench in the
playground to help students find a mate during recess. People at
Glencairn make you feel like you belong there.
Things were even more special for me. To everyone’s surprise, I was
selected as the president of the student council for that year. This was
the beginning of my crazy memories. Even though things at Glencairn
were completely new to me, it took me no time to fit in. In just a few
weeks into the year, I was leading the student council create videos,
arrange school events, and make announcements during our morning
assembly. I even got to help out in the main office during my free time.
Mrs. Ware seemed to really trust me. The most unbelievable part is
when Mrs. Ware arranged a surprise farewell party for me on my last
day at Glencairn, as I unfortunately had to leave before the school year
ended. No ordinary school does such a thing to a brand new student.
Glencairn has given me a number of life changing memories but the
most important lesson I learned there is to never be prejudice.
Unexpected arrival at airport
“Mahira, pack up and go to the office. Your father is waiting to pick you
up.” Mrs. Olmsted announced from her desk.
I suddenly felt so grateful to my dad for saving me from Art class. I
was getting bored of painting totem poles. I returned the colors in Mrs.
Olmsted’s huge closet for art supplies that were ages old, and safely
placed my totem on the rack. Then, I rushed to my locker with a wide
smile on my face. I felt excited to get a chance to skip this boring day at
school. However, there was a little bit of nervousness as I wasn’t really
sure why my dad was picking me. After I checked out of school, I asked
my father where we were going.
“Just wait and see...” Well, that was not so informative. I kept on
wondering what might have happened. I figured that we were not in
any trouble as dad seemed pretty excited. We talked about school for a
few minutes as my dad drove along the busy streets of Boston. No
matter how much I tried, my father would make sure to keep our
destination a secret. Suddenly I realized that we were entering the
departure area of the airport. This is when I realized that the rest of
the day would be a crazy experience. A ton of questions started
popping up in my head. “Where are we flying today?” I asked not
knowing where to begin.
“A week long workshop is starting tomorrow in Detroit. I got to know
about your invitation first and decided to surprise you.” Now I had
even more questions.
“It’s still snowing in Michigan, I don’t have a coat.” I know it sounded
stupid.
“Don’t worry. I got all your things packed up.”
I did my best to keep up with dad inside the airport; all those
questions in my mind were so distracting. Some of my questions were
answered in our two hour flight to Detroit, as dad filled me in about
the conference. I gradually figured out everything else by myself
during the trip.
“Students who study abroad achieve
greater success.” Do you agree?
We all have come across successful people who don’t have a college
degree. Yet, most of us agree on the fact that the quality of education
affects a person's career. In our society, many people blindly believe
that studying abroad would help them achieve success. When we
think about studying abroad, we tend to only consider immigration to
a different country for pursuing a college degree. However, going to a
K-12 school abroad can have the same effects. On the account does
studying abroad actually help students achieve greater success than
staying in our home country?
In most cases, studying abroad gives students access to a wider range
of better quality resources. They might get the opportunity to study
subjects that were not available in their local schools. The teaching
techniques also vary from country to country, so students may learn
better abroad. Most importantly, students get exposed to a diverse
culture. It helps them in many ways; they can get accustomed to
working with people from across the globe; since students get to meet
people from various backgrounds, they get to know about their
different perspectives, thoughts, and ideas. These students can make
use of world-class ideas from their peers and professors. Studying in
such an environment, helps them build a global network of experts on
their field of interest. It’s also worth mentioning that learning in a new
place, miles away from home,
surrounded by strangers, does affect the students’ mentality. Hence,
there is a great chance that they will strive for what they want to do
with their life under this pressure.
On the contrary, the challenges students face during their time abroad,
can seem too burdensome for them. There are many difficulties a
student might face. Students may negatively take the cultural shock,
consequently, they will have a hard time fitting in their new life.
Similarly, the language barrier is a key issue; thousands of students
struggle to understand and communicate in a foreign language. Even
though this is extremely rare, there is a tiny chance that the locals will
not be so welcoming; newbies might face some sort of discrimination.
As a result, they might become demotivated and eventually give up.
Another problem of moving abroad for education is that students tend
to find a job in that country and permanently settle there. They don’t
feel encouraged to come back and help their motherland.
These are some crucial matters a student must consider before
deciding to stay in their country, or traveling overseas for educational
purposes. If you are determined to stay focused and keep working
hard no matter what obstacles you face, you might want to get into a
school abroad. This doesn’t mean that not leaving your home country
is worthless. There are tons of opportunities to achieve success
regardless of where you are. You just have to take advantage of them.
Descriptive Essay
In the last few months, my favorite place on this earth has turned into
an extremely unusual one. Even though most of the soccer leagues
have resumed, the spectators are not back at the stadiums yet. La
Bombonera has been the loudest place I’ve ever been to in my entire
life; the atmosphere there is so intense that I have butterflies in my
stomach every time we have a home game. On the other hand, the
utter silence, with the empty stands, has also been intimidating. I
would definitely recommend anyone who is interested in football to
come and feel the excitement at La Bombonera but not before it is safe
for the public to return there.
When the stands are all occupied at the chocolate box, there is a total
of almost fifty thousand people screaming and cheering for the teams.
It is so deafening that it is impossible to comprehend what my
teammate standing just three feet away is trying to say. On my first
days at Boca Juniors, I thought I would never be able to give my best
performance with all this noise, but over the years I not only adapted
to it but it also pushed me to put forth all the magical goals. Every time
I entered the pitch I reminded myself that all these thousands people
have managed a part of their to come show some support; it would not
be fair at all if we let them down. The spectators, the posters, the noise
had all become a huge part of our games.
That is why it seems like everything has changed because of the virus.
With no one coming to watch us play, it feels like football has
completely changed over the course of just ninety two days. Now, the
two goalkeepers might even be able to talk to each other! In this new
atmosphere, we cannot run to our fans and celebrate after scoring, we
cannot hear the crowd shouting our names when we have the mall at
our feet, we cannot see thousands of football enthusiasts when we
look up during the game. All we can see is the digital advertisements
all throughout the chocolate box. All we can hear is the occasional echo
of the one of the few journalists.
Despite the huge difference in the environment, we have been
fortunate enough to be able to continue to play our favorite sport and
compete for the title. During such a time of uncertainty, I can only
hope for the old La Bombonera to be back again.
Describe the suspense of waiting for
someone to arrive.
Waiting; it’s never too easy. We all know that. It is even worse when
you are not sure when the person you’re waiting for is going to arrive,
and you’ll be in trouble if they show up late. This was my situation
when my friend, Wasifa, had to pick me up from my home and we
would then have to go to the sporting complex for our game; we could
not be late.
It was the day of our biggest game of the year; the most important
one; the one that would decide which school won the tournament this
year. As always, I had a hard time coping with all the pressure. I think I
had woken up four times in the eight hours I’ve been in bed that night.
Since morning, I couldn’t speak a single word because of the anxiety. I
almost threw up after breakfast. My knees were wobbly and I couldn’t
stand straight. As I was getting ready, I couldn’t stop my brain from
bringing the thoughts of everything that could possibly go wrong. Not
even for once did I worry about Wasifa not being able to get ready and
come pick me up on time.
We had to be there by 6:40am, for the ten-minute warmup. At 6am, I
texted my friend as I was all ready for the game, but even after a few
minutes, I only saw one of those check marks under my message. So, I
called her; no answer. I was sure, Wasifa didn’t wake up yet! My whole
body was shaking by then. I had to blink every second. My hands went
numb. My mind couldn’t think straight. I was having a proper panic
attack. I kept thinking how bad it would be if we get late. Our coach
would definitely yell at us, and there was a risk that he might not
allow us to be one of starters. We couldn’t let that happen, at least not
for the team.
I felt mad, agitated, but most of all anxious. I kept walking around all
over the house, not knowing what to do. I kept calling Wasifa over and
over again, to ask how much longer it would take her. Every time, it
was the same answer, “just two more minutes”. Twenty minutes had
elapsed, and I had made at least five phone calls, but no sign of Wasifa.
My parents tried to calm me down, but I could only get more nervous
seeing their sympathy and support for me. I wasn’t gonna let my
biggest day of the year get ruined. I tried to drink some water and take
a deep breath, but it didn’t help much.
Suddenly, I heard a sound at the door DINGG. I grabbed my green bag
from the chair and rushed out of my room for the entrance, through
the living room, whizzing past all the furniture; I could feel two pairs
of surprised eyes on me; but I didn’t care. The longer I took to open
the door, the longer it would take to reach the sporting complex.
Wasifa apologized for keeping me waiting. That didn’t matter
anymore, knowing that we would be able to catch the warmup just in
time made me get rid of that anxiety, for good.
Letter
Dear Alfee,
I wish you were there with me last night! I met two of my cousins for
the first time but more importantly, I got to know myself. My uncle
hosted a family reunion party so that we could all meet our newborn
twin cousins, Nazla and Manha, who are visiting us from Qatar this
summer. I’ve heard a ton about them for the last couple of months and
to be honest, I was looking forward to meet them. However, this party
was no exception, I had a gut wrenching experience as usual.
My cousins happen to be completely different from what I had
expected and exactly the opposite of my “kind of people”. Just as they
walked in through the front door everyone went, “Aww...”. I couldn’t
understand why people are so affectionate towards babies. I don’t
think I ever got a shred of how much they were loved last night! These
people surely know how to do injustice to young minds. Some of the
adults were competing to make those rattles laugh. During meal time,
my mother was boasting about how she got the kids to eat some of the
biryani. Some of my older cousins kept on comparing and contrasting
their features. They even got into disputes about whom the kids
seemed to like the most! Absolutely ridiculous. Nonsense.
The whole time, I was left alone in the corner of the room. I decided to
go stand in the balcony and watch the cars honking and speeding past
each other. As I saw a plane disappear into the clouds, I wished I could
also escape from my family, where no one cares about my existence.
All they want is eleven-months-old little brats to keep them joyful. No
one needs me.
Write a story which includes the
sentence “He could never resist
temptation”
Caleb Henry was the most productive student in the Carmel High
School. Everyone knew it. However, very little people were aware
about “why?”. Well, that is because his parents were strict enough to
never let him have access to any gadgets. Hence, Caleb never really
had to control his desires. In 2017, when Caleb moved out to
Massachusetts for college, and got himself a phone, things changed
forever. As any other teenager lost in the endless whirlpool of social
media addiction, Caleb would be on his 6” by 3” iPhone, day in and day
out.
He could never resist temptations. Even though he used to go to bed at
the usual 9pm his parents disciplined him into, he would end up
squinting his eyes and staring at the flat screen emitting blue light.
Scrolling. Till his phone would die out battery! Of course, Mr. Henry
would not be able to get up before noon, already having wasted half
the day! Yet, the first thing he do would do was to open his phone and
check each of his notifications.
Meaning that, Caleb would actually start his day around 2pm! Only to
have a shower, have some brunch, and get back to watching YouTube
pranks and vlogs, before even thinking of attending his afternoon
lectures. Sometimes, he got out of the suffocation of his dorm room, to
hang out with friends which is watching a movie together or playing
“Fortnite”. Rarely, Caleb’s roommates could manage to force him to
dust off his Organic Chemistry textbook and read through a few pages
hoping that their friend would catch up with class.
Guess what? Caleb Henry could NOT stop thinking about the instant
gratification of scrolling through TikTok. While having his book out on
his desk, Caleb would often plug in his earphones and listen to his
favourite playlist. Eventually, the 18-year-old would get bored to
sleep. In only six months of college, with his new phone, Caleb got so
used to with the sudden dopamine hits every second, that the amazing
world of books, knowledge and curiosity does not interest him
anymore.
If you have not guessed already, Caleb’s lack of self-control lead to his
own down fall. Within his first semester, Caleb Maximus Henry went
from Valedictorian of the largest high school in the States, to one of
the failing students at Harvard. He didn’t have his parents around to
push him around to get things done, and to make matters worse, he
had one of the latest phones all to himself. Hopefully, his drastic
change of lifestyle and health, and guidance from his well-wishers
would make him realise how much of harm he has done to himself.
Describe the suspense of some event to
happen.
We have all been in that situation before, we call someone after so
long, and they don’t seem to pick up the phone. There’s so much to say
but now you start to doubt if the other person will give you the
permission to open up your heart. Then they pick up the phone and
say that they’re busy and they will call you back soon. This is basically
what had happened to me when I had called my mom for the first time
in three months since arriving in college.
I knew that mom was busy the entire week with work so Thursday
nights are the only time when she is free to talk. The issue here is that
it is Thursday morning in Boston at that time, so I need to attend
classes. That is why I haven’t got a chance to call my parents back
home till Thanksgiving day. I have been planning for this half an hour
call ever since I have arrived In Harvard University, which was
September. I can’t wait to tell them all about my new experiences, my
professors, my new friends, the campus. Sadly, there were guests over
at “our” home -or should I say my parents’ home- when I had called, so
mom said that she would call back in a few minutes.
I hung up, but kept staring at the screen, waiting for it to start ringing.
Few minutes! That seemed like years. Even if I get the call after three
minutes, that would be one hundred eighty seconds! I did not feel like
that was possible. All this anticipation for months, might just have to
continue for even longer.
How to optimise your days at home
during the pandemic?
We are not exactly sure if this pandemic had been a blessing or a
curse. While so many people are suffering from the deadly virus, and
many are getting depressed not being able to physically interact with
the outside world, others are actually making best use of their time at
home. Now that we are able to spend so much time at home, we
should consider it as an opportunity and make best use of it.
The first key to optimize the days at home or anywhere else is sticking
to a routine. It’s best if this is somewhat similar to our previous daily
schedule. We cannot always be motivated enough at home, but staying
disciplined helps in continuing the grind, and figuring out things
easily. Make sure you are allocating your time wisely!
Besides the discipline, the importance of physical activity cannot be
overstated. We should always look after our health, and especially
during these times when we are mostly at home and there’s not much
chance for movement. Sometimes, social distancing can get
emotionally overwhelming, and exercising can really boost up our
mind!
Lastly, we can stay more productive if we work on reducing our
distractions. Staying connected with loved ones is extremely
important, but we should also be careful that we’re not misusing our
screen time. That way, we can focus more on our goals and work on
learning and discovering new things everyday!
COVID-19
Follow the safety measures and avoid the speculations. Only look up
news from reliable, authentic sources and reduce your intake if it’s too
much for you take in.
Socialize with friends often, whether through social media, emails or
on the phone. In a safe atmosphere, share your thoughts and feelings
with your loved ones to ease out.
Maintain a routine, that’ll help you look after yourself. The importance
of exercising for teenagers cannot be exaggerated. It’ll help you feel
more energized and confident. Also, remember to make best use of
your screen time. You need to stay at the top of your class all the time,
but try to learn and discover new things everyday!
Lastly, as we always say, look at the positive sides of this pandemic,
instead of the drawbacks!
Emotions
Emotions; most of us don’t pay attention to it. There are times when
we feel unhappy, hollowness surrounds us, and we are in pain. Often
times we ignore it. And this is what makes us feel even worse. In this
fast paced world, we are always caught up with our tight schedules,
not caring but ourselves. But, shouldn’t that be the most important
thing though?
And one way to look after your well-being is, pay attention. Find out
how long you have been feeling low for. Then try to figure out why is it
you’re feeling like that. Is your current state of mind affecting your
daily activities? If you’ve been constantly feeling depressed for three
months or longer, then please seek professional help. If not, then one
way to feel better is finding HOPE. You’d never find it difficult, when
you’re optimistic.
What happens to you is not in your control; but you have absolute
power over how you respond. Remember that every coin had two
sides, and just like that every thing that makes you feel sad has a
potential to make you happy too. Finding gratitude in even the little
things you have can make a huge difference. Try it out today! Always
try to find your reason to smile today and do the things that you love
often. Last but not the least, make an effort to avoid what makes you
depressed.
Exams!
It is pretty normal to open your report card and find out you have
performed really poor this time; chances are you failed. But, don’t
worry. It happens to everyone at times! This just had to be your turn
to taste the experience.
Don’t be so hard on yourself. Take a break. Talk to your friends;
socialize and chill out together; play with them for a while. Then
remember get to back to reality again.
At first, reflect on the situation. Instead of only blaming yourself, think
about the ways you could’ve achieved a better result, how can you
prevent this from happening again?
Always remember that failure is a pillar of success. Learn from your
mistakes and don’t forget, “This is not the end of the world”!
Intelligence is not enough
Ever since I can remember, I have been competed against my
classmates, friends, cousins, to excel in everything that I tried. And I
can say, I did a pretty good job on that. But, recently, I have started to
question, what is all this for? How are all these awards gonna help me
in the real world? Will I be able to contribute and make an impact with
these?
Well, not really. Because practically, intelligence and talent is just not
enough. There’s just so much more that is needed to successfully leave
a mark in this world. We need to be aware of the roles we play, and
take responsibility to the problems around us, regardless if we are
told to do it or not. That is why we need to the willingness to practice
leadership among ourselves. We need to be able to observe the
problems in our surroundings, interpret those observations, think
about the possible reasons why it’s happening and how we can best
intervene to solve the challenge. Last but not the least, we need to
know how to interact with people, so that we can efficiently deliver
our thoughts.
For all this, we need experience, and intelligence is just not enough.
My fellow mates, a very good morning to you all! It looks like most of
us are doing well today. But, I’m afraid there are others who are
suffering; the exhaust fumes from our vehicles and factories are
causing huge problems. Our earth is warming up, changing the climate
of various regions. Innocent animals are not being able to adapt to
such a change. Different types of pollution is becoming the reason for
a number of newly discovered diseases. Wondering why I’m
mentioning this to you? Well, the shocking part is, we are responsible
for these consequences, and you know never know when it will
happen to you too!
All that is happening because of our actions. Do you know how much
plastic we are throwing into our landfills, rivers, and oceans? Tons,
and tons, and tons! These imperishable materials would take
thousands of years before it starts to break down. This affects our
marine life, which in turn harms our own food chain. Imagine, you’re
walking by the street; it’s smells so bad that you can’t breathe
properly and everywhere you look, there’s rubbish. Would you like it?
Let me tell you something. Just some of your tiny interventions can
help save us from this horrific situation.
From today onwards, you have to commit to being conscious of the
world around you. Before you throw the chips packet onto the street,
think. Would you like to come across that when you’re walking by?
When you see someone reluctant to turn off the lights, when they
don’t need it, educate them. Make them aware of the impacts. That
way, slowly, but surely we can solve our problem one day.
School uniforms
School uniforms; should we make them a rule? Or do we abandon
them? This has been a debatable topic for many years. While some
countries have made them compulsory, to enforce the so called “strict
discipline”, others have decided to give their children the privilege of
choosing what they want they want to wear to school each day. Both
policies are executed thoughtfully all depends on the objectives of
school authorities. However, in a school environment it is more
preferable to have all students were a uniform.
The uniform can be a source of pride for the school’s students. This
unique outfit is what they are wearing while making countless
memories everyday as they are growing up. At study tours, inter
school competitions, or social functions, students can be classified by
their uniforms. The logos on their dresses say which school they are
representing. Having their uniform speak for their identity is a great
deal that needs consideration.
It can also be an efficient way for the students to create a bond with
their school, and their mates. As uniforms create a brand for the
school, and there are reasons to find joy in wearing them, students
may start having feelings for their schools, through these underrated
uniforms! After graduation, many students prefer to keep their
uniforms to remind them of their school spirit.
Last but not the least, wearing discipline definitely enforces discipline
in the school zone. Having this precise dress code means that no one’s
wearing any inappropriate clothes. In addition, this policy does not
even leave a question of offensive dress up. Schools should take
thoughtful steps in creating the proper moral values in each of their
students.
It can be said that enforcing school uniforms, and making everyone
wear the same thing can be damaging for the young minds in growing
their identity. However, I’ve already mentioned that students may find
an increased level of self esteem through branding their school, and
they still have the liberty of clothing choice everywhere else on planet
earth. Having to wear the same clothes everyday, and being around
people who does so too, can lead to an increasing mundanity, but not
when the students are given a reason to get emotionally connected to
their uniforms.
Therefore, it is better for the upbringing of students, that schools put
forth the strategy of every student having to wear a uniform. Even
though there might be questions regarding freedom or monotony, not
only that the students are getting a chance to brand their school spirit,
but also have the uniform as a souvenir to showcase their memories,
achievements and growth during their school life. On that note, would
you still prioritize to give your students the choice of wearing
something different?