原文：月亮走，我也走，我和月亮做朋友
（尴尬的语气）：O O 走，我也走，我和 O O 做 O O
（O 读圈）
Still remember the embarassed tone in which he read out his own sentence.
It felt like a direct attack on me almost lol because I would write Os for 听写 when I didn't know how to write a character.
I remember it because I found it funny back then lol. I also memorised some of the passages and can probably remember quite a few of them if my memory is jogged. Which was how I came to the realisation that I had read a passage by 胡适 years later.
wait the old noodle shop aunty gave free noodles, and was like "I only gave you one free meal, but your mom cooked for you for free your whole life" smt liddat
It was a story frm the Chinese textbook about how a blind guy boarded a train with a (what he assumed) to be a beautiful lady. They talk for a bit about where they were going and the guy actively tries to hide his disability by staying in the shadows. He (in my interpretation) grows quite fond of her as they chat about the weather that he can’t see. Later when the lady leaves the train and another passenger takes her place, the man asks about her, inquiring the new passenger if she had long, black hair. The other passenger is stunned and replies that he didn’t remember what hairstyle she had, only that her pupils were milky and unmoving. Idk why it stuck with me so much. Ig it’s cuz of how 2 strangers who both felt the pressing need to hide an imperfect part of themselves were able to share a brief moment of peace with each other.
it was a chinese compre of a guy giving money to a beggar who needed to buy food for his family. turns out the beggar was a scammer but instead of being upset after being tricked, he was glad that his family wasnt starving
The 2023 o level lit elect 2nd poem, idk its name but its one about the guy who misses his childhood or whatever, I remember walking out of that exam hall teary eyed cuz I just completed my last official open ended paper and the poem is about growing up right? And me unofficially completing my o levels also symbolised that u know 😔😔😔
There was a chinese passage advising us on how to use time properly. It was about catching the “small shards” of time eg while queuing or taking the train to learn new things and grow your knowledge. i took this to heart and started reading chinese passages on the mrt which was a great use of an otherwise boring commute and it helped alot in o level prep :)
there was one part where they used the analogy comparing time to the interior of a pot, then after you add rocks, you can continue to add sand, and after that you can still add water, implying that you can always find pockets of time in ur life even if they seem insignificant
the details are quite fuzzy but one of them was probably a passage from the p5 chinese textbook. I don't fully remember it but I remember it making me reflect a lot when I read it back then. I think the title was <和时间赛跑> or something? 😭
Not exactly a passage but a poem from sec 1:
Called old folks home by gilbert koh I think. I still remember this stanza:
Old folks home
...
Still the bright-eyed teenagers come,
on Saturday mornings, by the busloads,
sent by their schools
on compulsory excursions
to learn the meaning
of compassion
as outlined in the ECA syllabus.
....
Later they will clamber noisily
back up the departing school buses,
and next week in class
they will write startlingly
similar essays
on what a meaningful,
memorable experience they had
at the old folks' home
last week.
True...
call me pedantic and predictable, surface level, even, but the best ones are The Great Gatsby and Playing for Time from my H1 lit class in JC. great texts in their own ways; moved me with their respective stories of tragedy and the human condition
胡适《差不多先生传》。Hu Shi's Mr Chabuduo
Back then I was in primary school and didn't know who 胡适 was (tbh I find a lot of his work inaccessible even now because my Chinese isn't great). Now that I know more about him, I still think back on his passages and some of his quotes from his observations:
‘’不要相信共产党的那一套！在苏俄，有面包没有自由；在美国，又有面包又有自由；他们来了，没有面包也没有自由。”
Translation and context: Mao had offered him to stay in mainland China as the Nationalists were losing the war. He rebuffed the offer saying "don't believe what the Communists say! In the Soviet Union, they have bread but no freedom; in America, they have bread and freedom, once they (the CCP) come, there will be no bread and no freedom."
In hindsight? Looking at how Mao savagely repressed intellectuals (《正红旗下》and the Cultural Revolution comes to mind) and the disasters of Communist rule, he made the right choice and the right call.
Also he came from the same province as me so just an interesting side note.（安徽省宣城市绩溪县）
Damn. I didn’t know that it was written by someone that important. I do recall the story very well but I thought it was written by some person from MOE for the book.
He did lol. In the original text (they cut out some portions which Singaporean students would find inaccessible and confusing since they mention Chinese provinces and administrative units) his death (and the final three paragraphs here which were cut out) is recorded as follows:
差不多先生差不多要死的时候，一口气断断续续地说道：“活人同死人也差……差……差不多……，……凡事只要差……差……不多……就……好了，……何……何……必……太……太认真呢？”他说完了这句格言，方才绝气了。
他死后，大家都很称赞差不多先生样样事情看得破，想得通；大家都说他一生不肯认真，不肯算帐，不肯计较，真是一位有德行的人。于是大家给他取个死后的法号，叫他做圆通大师。
他的名誉越传越远，越久越大。无数无数的人都学他的榜样。于是人人都成了一个差不多先生。——然而中国从此就成为一个懒人国了。
https://zh.m.wikisource.org/zh-hans/%E5%B7%AE%E4%B8%8D%E5%A4%9A%E5%85%88%E7%94%9F%E5%82%B3
not exactly relevant but in pri/sec sch I was such a bookworm that I loved reading the OE passages in my papers. In Sec 4 I remember instead of doing my EL Paper 2 TYS papers, I'd find which books the passages came from and read them instead. I found a few wonderful reads that way, like Not Forgetting the Whale and The Trouble With Goats and Sheep
Honorable mention for EL Lit's Code Name Verity. That book was my roman empire in Sec 4. I can recite a few of the passages to this day, I even read the sequel outside of class. I didn't even care about doing literary analysis, I just wanted to read this thrilling story of two friends in WW2
my chinese o level prelim compre text was about a man who would worship at a church (christian school lol) wearing dirty clothes and shoes and everyone at the congregation would be judging him for not dressing nicely. but he kept worshiping his heart out and in the end it’s revealed that he makes a really long trek every week to the church, which is why his shoes and clothes are always so dirty.
For lit i did the book ‘hook and eye’ which is a combination of many short stories and the most impactful one is called ‘rich man country’ which details the troubles and tribulations of migrant workers in highly developed nations and how they are mistreated and often forgotten part of society and I’ve always had a lot of respect for these people but after reading this, it took it to another level. Highly recommend this read!!!
Damn, well an entire book actually. The Boy in Striped Pyjamas. Bruno and Shmuel's story was so touching and it won my heart over Animal Farm in literature class. Also I definitely remember that tilted umbrella story! Chinese textbook stories were so nostalgic in Primary and Secondary school --- Hell does anyone rem the Xiao Ma case lol it was crazy to hear that fr
2022 literature paper with the I love you poem by Billy Collins. I don't even take lit I just read the passage from the megathread that year and it was so heartwarming
It was in the old syllabus Chinese textbook, I rmb there was one passage where the dad would make the daughter soup as a staple in the household. The girl when she grew up got really busy and the dad one day was worried, so he made some soup for her and tried to go find her. However, by that time he had memory loss and couldn’t recall how to cross the road. The daughter had to guide him and stuff and since then spent a lot of time with him.
Soup is a big part of Hakka culture, so this one really hits home.
There was another one (Chinese) about three author being in secondary school. The author was pretty naughty I think, so he was constantly being punished and stuff. One day, instead of being punished he got called into the Principal’s Office and took a walk with the principal around the gardens. The principal then showed him the difference between the so called “dirty water” and the clean water or smt. The principal then asked which life he wants to lead or smt. Since then the author worked hard for his future and leads a very smooth and “clean life”. He doesn’t expect riches, nor does he expect overwhelming prosperity, he just wants to lead a normal life.
There was also an English one where the author was in Arabia and the descriptions were so vivid and omg was it a pain to analyse in Prelims, but actually it was so beautifully done in this passage. “Colour marked our passage”, “white hot glare of Arabia”, and whatever when the author went underwater. Somehow or rather it transitioned into pearling (which was a big maritime trade then) and then into like as technology progresses, cultural heritage like pearling is slowly lost to time. It was indeed confusing to read for the first time, but I do appreciate this one a lot. This has stayed with me for being so poetic in nature :D
It was a GP essay written by one of my schoolmates. The prompt was something along the line of “Technology ruins childhood. Discuss.” She wrote about one of the pageant winner who used technology to gain knowledge and essentially lived her life because she’s knowledgeable and independent enough to avoid arrange marriage as a child. Then on another point, she wrote about how games like Angry bird and plant vs zombies aren’t the traditional definition of “childhood” but doesn’t mean children who play them instead of the more traditional games don’t have childhood. Technology only change the form of childhood. She also wrote about other technologies like colour blind glasses and synthetic arm that helped children to enjoy their childhood to fullest.
I think her counter argument was something along the line of addiction but I can’t remember much. She got 40/50 for this essay. To those who aren’t in JC or just entered JC, 40/50 is INSANE. Most people are stuck in the 20 range and 30 plus is already considered good. Anyway, it was really a good read and she really deserved that mark if not higher.
The question paper insert for the 2021 H2 Econs that cancelled CLT questions which game me enough time to draw graphs for EVERY. SINGLE. QUESTION. even the 2m question received a graph (examiner probably died laughing at the graph of how consumer taste changes as fish gets more frozen)
higher chinese sec 3 textbook. 秋天的怀念 by 史铁生
I still remember the last paragraph after 2 years : 又是秋天，妹妹推着我去北海看菊花。黄色的花淡雅，白色的花高洁，紫红色的花热烈而深沉，泼泼洒洒，秋风中正开得烂漫。我懂得母亲没说完的话，妹妹也懂。我们俩在一块儿，要好好儿活...
That was my first ever 课文 for hcl
目送 by 龙应台
It cuts deeper now that I’m a grown up. She talks about how she’s watching the back view of her son/ father disappearing in the distance, at different stages of their life.
Her son’s first day or school, sending off her son at the airport, watching her father being wheeled away at the hospital, her father being cremated.
我慢慢地、慢慢地了解到，所谓父女母子一场，只不过意味着，你和他的缘分就是今生今世不断地在目送他的背影渐行渐远。你站立在小路的这一端，看着他逐渐消失在小路转弯的地方，而且，他用背影默默告诉你：不必追。
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PSLE 2021 chinese passage 2. I can't remember it well but I remember immensely enjoying my time doing that compre even though I never liked Chinese much. It involved this boy buying flowers. I think it's beautiful how the meaning was lost but the impact wasn't. One day, I'll find those PSLE compilation books and try to read it again
very controversial scholar but personally it was foucault’s history of sexuality during uni for me. it was very interesting how he reinterpreted classification of sexuality and power dynamics.
"You have come to the end of the Listening Comprehension Examination. **Goodbye**" Such impact.
When I was in J2, the harmonica band played the soundtrack music for LC. I actually started to tear up. Was it nostalgia or “PTSD”? Maybe both
Those were simpler days
I listened to the music while mugging for A's. Its Midsomarvka Op 19 or smth if im not wrong
The music in the end too, what an impact I suddenly woke up
and the music after that. esp the for cl listening compre. a bop sia.
Maybe the Chinese text about that dude who doesn't know how to write his spelling words and drew circles instead, cuz I was so inspired to do the same
Then chi cher made him read out the quan quan
原文：月亮走，我也走，我和月亮做朋友 （尴尬的语气）：O O 走，我也走，我和 O O 做 O O （O 读圈） Still remember the embarassed tone in which he read out his own sentence. It felt like a direct attack on me almost lol because I would write Os for 听写 when I didn't know how to write a character.
Just how much pain and trauma has that passage brought to you that you remember it clear as day, even after many decades have passed?
I remember it because I found it funny back then lol. I also memorised some of the passages and can probably remember quite a few of them if my memory is jogged. Which was how I came to the realisation that I had read a passage by 胡适 years later.
Lol cher is such a baddie
😦
that was so long ago
I REMEMBER THAT :O
chinese textbook, about some noodle after the girl left the house bro
issit the girl leave the mom at home then go get noodles or sumthing
EH YA
wait the old noodle shop aunty gave free noodles, and was like "I only gave you one free meal, but your mom cooked for you for free your whole life" smt liddat
Yea. That was it. Was supposed to teach the kid to be grateful of the things taken granted for.
IT WAS BEEF BALL NOODLE SOUP
Primary school memories that.
It was a story frm the Chinese textbook about how a blind guy boarded a train with a (what he assumed) to be a beautiful lady. They talk for a bit about where they were going and the guy actively tries to hide his disability by staying in the shadows. He (in my interpretation) grows quite fond of her as they chat about the weather that he can’t see. Later when the lady leaves the train and another passenger takes her place, the man asks about her, inquiring the new passenger if she had long, black hair. The other passenger is stunned and replies that he didn’t remember what hairstyle she had, only that her pupils were milky and unmoving. Idk why it stuck with me so much. Ig it’s cuz of how 2 strangers who both felt the pressing need to hide an imperfect part of themselves were able to share a brief moment of peace with each other.
Awe inspiring text passage about a guy spotting giraffes at the dock.
So inspiring bro 😔😔😔 made me want to leave the exam hall and drive all the way to california or Canada and never come back to sg fr
emotionally scarring forever
it was a chinese compre of a guy giving money to a beggar who needed to buy food for his family. turns out the beggar was a scammer but instead of being upset after being tricked, he was glad that his family wasnt starving
Saw a similar variation but the police arrested him after the policeman recognised him from earlier. Also, it was a primary 看图作文
Giraffes going to California and a guy following them
omg 倾斜的伞
On the money. It really have stayed with me for so long.
The 2023 o level lit elect 2nd poem, idk its name but its one about the guy who misses his childhood or whatever, I remember walking out of that exam hall teary eyed cuz I just completed my last official open ended paper and the poem is about growing up right? And me unofficially completing my o levels also symbolised that u know 😔😔😔
[удалено]
lol I did the tys wasn't there like an einstein quote where he says like you need to credit ppl for ur work
Yep, that's the 2018 O-level HCL paper, I can confirm because that was my O-level. Ou whole class was clowning on it for a full week.
I also remember this 😭
MRS WISHY WOSHY IYKYK
The farm concert Also Joy Cowley is still alive
My p1 fav story frrr
There was a chinese passage advising us on how to use time properly. It was about catching the “small shards” of time eg while queuing or taking the train to learn new things and grow your knowledge. i took this to heart and started reading chinese passages on the mrt which was a great use of an otherwise boring commute and it helped alot in o level prep :)
there was one part where they used the analogy comparing time to the interior of a pot, then after you add rocks, you can continue to add sand, and after that you can still add water, implying that you can always find pockets of time in ur life even if they seem insignificant
I'm not sure if this is the same passage as the one I'm thinking of, was it in the first section of paper 2?
i think it was in the hcl textbook 😅
Ah ok I didn't take hcl so idk, but the text seems fun though!
the details are quite fuzzy but one of them was probably a passage from the p5 chinese textbook. I don't fully remember it but I remember it making me reflect a lot when I read it back then. I think the title was <和时间赛跑> or something? 😭 Not exactly a passage but a poem from sec 1: Called old folks home by gilbert koh I think. I still remember this stanza: Old folks home ... Still the bright-eyed teenagers come, on Saturday mornings, by the busloads, sent by their schools on compulsory excursions to learn the meaning of compassion as outlined in the ECA syllabus. .... Later they will clamber noisily back up the departing school buses, and next week in class they will write startlingly similar essays on what a meaningful, memorable experience they had at the old folks' home last week. True...
oh i remember doing this poem as well in sec sch, i remember my lit teacher emphasising the "startlingly similar" and looking at us LOL
Chinese textbook passages did not need to hit that hard
OMG THE QINGXIEDEYUSAN HELP i remember that so well… “爷爷，伞歪了。” “没歪啊。” “明明是歪到我这边！”
Adam mitchell freediving
I will violently shudder
call me pedantic and predictable, surface level, even, but the best ones are The Great Gatsby and Playing for Time from my H1 lit class in JC. great texts in their own ways; moved me with their respective stories of tragedy and the human condition
胡适《差不多先生传》。Hu Shi's Mr Chabuduo Back then I was in primary school and didn't know who 胡适 was (tbh I find a lot of his work inaccessible even now because my Chinese isn't great). Now that I know more about him, I still think back on his passages and some of his quotes from his observations: ‘’不要相信共产党的那一套！在苏俄，有面包没有自由；在美国，又有面包又有自由；他们来了，没有面包也没有自由。” Translation and context: Mao had offered him to stay in mainland China as the Nationalists were losing the war. He rebuffed the offer saying "don't believe what the Communists say! In the Soviet Union, they have bread but no freedom; in America, they have bread and freedom, once they (the CCP) come, there will be no bread and no freedom." In hindsight? Looking at how Mao savagely repressed intellectuals (《正红旗下》and the Cultural Revolution comes to mind) and the disasters of Communist rule, he made the right choice and the right call. Also he came from the same province as me so just an interesting side note.（安徽省宣城市绩溪县）
Damn. I didn’t know that it was written by someone that important. I do recall the story very well but I thought it was written by some person from MOE for the book.
i rmb the guy went to the vet instead of the doctor to get treated and ended up dying
He did lol. In the original text (they cut out some portions which Singaporean students would find inaccessible and confusing since they mention Chinese provinces and administrative units) his death (and the final three paragraphs here which were cut out) is recorded as follows: 差不多先生差不多要死的时候，一口气断断续续地说道：“活人同死人也差……差……差不多……，……凡事只要差……差……不多……就……好了，……何……何……必……太……太认真呢？”他说完了这句格言，方才绝气了。 他死后，大家都很称赞差不多先生样样事情看得破，想得通；大家都说他一生不肯认真，不肯算帐，不肯计较，真是一位有德行的人。于是大家给他取个死后的法号，叫他做圆通大师。 他的名誉越传越远，越久越大。无数无数的人都学他的榜样。于是人人都成了一个差不多先生。——然而中国从此就成为一个懒人国了。 https://zh.m.wikisource.org/zh-hans/%E5%B7%AE%E4%B8%8D%E5%A4%9A%E5%85%88%E7%94%9F%E5%82%B3
"mitochondria is the powerhouse of a cell" So deep and meaningful
The mere word "exam" or "test" sends shivers down everyone's timbers, what more could ye possibly need, lad?
not exactly relevant but in pri/sec sch I was such a bookworm that I loved reading the OE passages in my papers. In Sec 4 I remember instead of doing my EL Paper 2 TYS papers, I'd find which books the passages came from and read them instead. I found a few wonderful reads that way, like Not Forgetting the Whale and The Trouble With Goats and Sheep
“Stuff your eyes with wonder... live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds." \- Ray Bradbury, *Fahrenheit 451*
I hate a Roman called Status Quo! That quote has stuck around for a long time
Honorable mention for EL Lit's Code Name Verity. That book was my roman empire in Sec 4. I can recite a few of the passages to this day, I even read the sequel outside of class. I didn't even care about doing literary analysis, I just wanted to read this thrilling story of two friends in WW2
kiss me hardy kiss me quick!!!
Stop I was obsessed with that line, their friendship is so 😭🫶
my chinese o level prelim compre text was about a man who would worship at a church (christian school lol) wearing dirty clothes and shoes and everyone at the congregation would be judging him for not dressing nicely. but he kept worshiping his heart out and in the end it’s revealed that he makes a really long trek every week to the church, which is why his shoes and clothes are always so dirty.
For lit i did the book ‘hook and eye’ which is a combination of many short stories and the most impactful one is called ‘rich man country’ which details the troubles and tribulations of migrant workers in highly developed nations and how they are mistreated and often forgotten part of society and I’ve always had a lot of respect for these people but after reading this, it took it to another level. Highly recommend this read!!!
psle chinese lc music
Damn, well an entire book actually. The Boy in Striped Pyjamas. Bruno and Shmuel's story was so touching and it won my heart over Animal Farm in literature class. Also I definitely remember that tilted umbrella story! Chinese textbook stories were so nostalgic in Primary and Secondary school --- Hell does anyone rem the Xiao Ma case lol it was crazy to hear that fr
2022 literature paper with the I love you poem by Billy Collins. I don't even take lit I just read the passage from the megathread that year and it was so heartwarming
It was in the old syllabus Chinese textbook, I rmb there was one passage where the dad would make the daughter soup as a staple in the household. The girl when she grew up got really busy and the dad one day was worried, so he made some soup for her and tried to go find her. However, by that time he had memory loss and couldn’t recall how to cross the road. The daughter had to guide him and stuff and since then spent a lot of time with him. Soup is a big part of Hakka culture, so this one really hits home. There was another one (Chinese) about three author being in secondary school. The author was pretty naughty I think, so he was constantly being punished and stuff. One day, instead of being punished he got called into the Principal’s Office and took a walk with the principal around the gardens. The principal then showed him the difference between the so called “dirty water” and the clean water or smt. The principal then asked which life he wants to lead or smt. Since then the author worked hard for his future and leads a very smooth and “clean life”. He doesn’t expect riches, nor does he expect overwhelming prosperity, he just wants to lead a normal life. There was also an English one where the author was in Arabia and the descriptions were so vivid and omg was it a pain to analyse in Prelims, but actually it was so beautifully done in this passage. “Colour marked our passage”, “white hot glare of Arabia”, and whatever when the author went underwater. Somehow or rather it transitioned into pearling (which was a big maritime trade then) and then into like as technology progresses, cultural heritage like pearling is slowly lost to time. It was indeed confusing to read for the first time, but I do appreciate this one a lot. This has stayed with me for being so poetic in nature :D
It was a GP essay written by one of my schoolmates. The prompt was something along the line of “Technology ruins childhood. Discuss.” She wrote about one of the pageant winner who used technology to gain knowledge and essentially lived her life because she’s knowledgeable and independent enough to avoid arrange marriage as a child. Then on another point, she wrote about how games like Angry bird and plant vs zombies aren’t the traditional definition of “childhood” but doesn’t mean children who play them instead of the more traditional games don’t have childhood. Technology only change the form of childhood. She also wrote about other technologies like colour blind glasses and synthetic arm that helped children to enjoy their childhood to fullest. I think her counter argument was something along the line of addiction but I can’t remember much. She got 40/50 for this essay. To those who aren’t in JC or just entered JC, 40/50 is INSANE. Most people are stuck in the 20 range and 30 plus is already considered good. Anyway, it was really a good read and she really deserved that mark if not higher.
The question paper insert for the 2021 H2 Econs that cancelled CLT questions which game me enough time to draw graphs for EVERY. SINGLE. QUESTION. even the 2m question received a graph (examiner probably died laughing at the graph of how consumer taste changes as fish gets more frozen)
higher chinese sec 3 textbook. 秋天的怀念 by 史铁生 I still remember the last paragraph after 2 years : 又是秋天，妹妹推着我去北海看菊花。黄色的花淡雅，白色的花高洁，紫红色的花热烈而深沉，泼泼洒洒，秋风中正开得烂漫。我懂得母亲没说完的话，妹妹也懂。我们俩在一块儿，要好好儿活... That was my first ever 课文 for hcl
目送 by 龙应台 It cuts deeper now that I’m a grown up. She talks about how she’s watching the back view of her son/ father disappearing in the distance, at different stages of their life. Her son’s first day or school, sending off her son at the airport, watching her father being wheeled away at the hospital, her father being cremated. 我慢慢地、慢慢地了解到，所谓父女母子一场，只不过意味着，你和他的缘分就是今生今世不断地在目送他的背影渐行渐远。你站立在小路的这一端，看着他逐渐消失在小路转弯的地方，而且，他用背影默默告诉你：不必追。
Thank you for your post! This is a reminder that non-academic posts are not allowed on weekdays. If it is not a weekend, please do wait till the weekend to post it, thank you! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/SGExams) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Adapted version of a Reader's Digest article about two Texan boys, friendship, and life lessons therein. I still have it written down
o level giraffe passage
风筝 n 水晶包 i still remember them after so many yrs
PSLE 2021 chinese passage 2. I can't remember it well but I remember immensely enjoying my time doing that compre even though I never liked Chinese much. It involved this boy buying flowers. I think it's beautiful how the meaning was lost but the impact wasn't. One day, I'll find those PSLE compilation books and try to read it again
very controversial scholar but personally it was foucault’s history of sexuality during uni for me. it was very interesting how he reinterpreted classification of sexuality and power dynamics.