A list of essays released in 2000

Reverse imaging in an advertisement

A bus crawled as there was a traffic jam. On board the bus a woman and a man started their conversation.

"A friend of mine told me that it is good to drink a little wine occasionally," the woman expressed in a low voice, apparantly with an intention not to disturb other passengers.

"I think so. Did you buy the most famous brand?" the man asked.

"I intended to but finally dropped the idea because of an advertisement on a newspaper originated from its manufacturer."

"I can't follow you. Please elaborate."

"The advertisement was printed in reverse image."

"Reverse image?"

"Normally words and pictures were printed in black against a white background. But this advertisement was printed against a black background. That is what I mean by reverse image."

"You were not impressed?"

"Not really. I was thinking about the consequence of buying it. The unnecessary waste of black ink made my hands dirty and was unfriendly to resources. More buying would mean more serious consequences."

A student and a driver

It was the beginning day of a fall semester. A college campus revived, especially on a beautiful sunny day.

Rather incompatible with the environment, there was a violent sound of a car horn. On a narrow road, a car followed a bicycle.

One could easily deduce that the driver of the car was forced to slow down because of the bicycle. The driver gave a signal to a student who was riding the bicycle to give a way for his car.

The student slowly stopped his bicycle. "Can I help you?" he asked slowly.

"Your bicycle is slow. You should let my car overtake."

"Who give you the right?"

"But, in the past, a lot of people stopped their bicycles and let me go first."

"That is your problem."

Spectators were cheered for another couple of minutes. Just before the two vehicles approached the junction of a main road, the student pedalled quickly towards a library building.

Celebrity fans

A young girl woke up at seven in the morning. Her school bus was scheduled to arrive for her at 7:25. She was in a hurry but did not forget to peep on the newspaper at the corner of the dining table. She was looking for any printed words about a celebrity whom she had admired so much.

Soon afterward she was at her school and was greeted by two of her classmates. The first topic of their conversation was, as usual, the celebrity.

"Hey, do you know that he is going to give a show in about three months?" one of her classmates asked in a reporting manner.

"We must get the tickets first, but I do not have that much money," the other one expressed in a low voice.

"We must get it. I tell you what. We all try to do something today and meet tomorrow again and see what we can do."

And so the school day became a day without learning.

And matters similar to this happened quite often.

The young girl will grow up in a few years. She certainly will be less enthusiastic in admiring the celebrity. She certainly will devote much more attention to her learning.