You were in a shopping mall when you heard a loud noise...
The pupil has to use this as an introduction and write a story that consists of at least 150 words and includes the following points in the story:
- what made the loud noise;
- what happened next and
- what happened in the end.
This scenario is adapted from a past PSLE question.
During the brainstorming session, the pupils generated many plausible storylines, some of which included:
- a fire
- a robbery
- shoplifting
- a fight
- a lunatic running berserk
- a terrorist attack
The writing skill that we focused on was the Use of Colours to describe a setting. Pupils were given a vocabulary list of colours and asked to come up with an introductory paragraph to describe a shopping mall.
Composition of the Week
Christmas was in the air. As I strolled towards Ngee Ann City, I could not help noticing that Orchard Road was lined by creamy and carmine (good use of alliteration) little trees. When I entered Ngee Ann City, I was immediately greeted by a huge emerald Christmas tree which towered over me. There were turquoise, lavender and crimson balls hanging from it, with 'snow' that never melts scattered convincingly across the tree and right at the very tip of it was a huge lilac star. Hordes of shoppers thronged the mall and the excited buzz of the crowd drowned out the faint muzak playing in the background.
'She's late again,' I thought exasperatedly. I had arranged to go shopping with my friend, Jia Rong, to purchase some Christmas gifts for the upcoming festive season.
Just as I was about to call Jia Rong, a loud explosion rocked the building. After that, the mall was filled with screams of ladies, babies screaming and crying and some children screaming the screams of ladies, wails of children and shouts of grown men. For a moment, I froze, to stunned to react.
That moment of paralysis was shattered when some men wielding guns appeared and began shooting into the crowd randomly. The shoppers, so jolly some moments ago, descended into a madness of desperate chaos. Screaming and shouting in terror, they charged blindly towards the exits, pushing me along. In the pandemonium, I saw a man collapse. He had been hit by a bullet and crimson blood was gushing out from his chest. No one bothered to help him as everyone was too busy fleeing for their lives (unnecessary because it is understood that the shoppers would be concerned for their own safety). He twitched in agony for a while and then stopped moving. My heart turned icy with fear.
Suddenly, I saw some masked men in uniforms. From their attire, I recognised our counter-terrorist forces! My hopes rose only to plummet seconds later. Gunshots rang out as the criminals and law enforcers exchanged shots. Caught in the crossfire, I crouched as low as possible, praying that I would not be hit by any stray bullet.
As the soldiers engaged the outlaws, I clumsily made my way towards the exit of the mall, trying to move forward while staying as low as I could. After some time, my muscles were straining and my lungs felt like they were burning. But I ignored the discomfort and focused on the exit. Just when I was a few feet away from the sliding glass, my left leg seized up in agony. Of all times to be struck by cramps!
I could have wept in despair. Then unexpected, a figure darted in, grabbed me and hauled me out of the mall. It was Jia Rong! The moment I stepped out of the mall, I slumped against her and started crying uncontrollably. Relief, fear, sadness - they all coursed through me, separate at times and mingling at others.
Later, I would learn that it was a terrorist attack. I was of course immensely grateful to Jia Rong. If she had not risked her life to save me, I do not know what would have happened to me. The incident left such a scar on me that I refused to go out for weeks. I also did not care to read the newspaper reports about it. Maybe after a long, long time has passed, I may become curious and then I would want to find out the whys, the whats and the hows. But not yet. Currently, all I want to do is to forget the incident.
Isabelle Ong (Primary 6)
Chongfu Primary School
As I don't have sufficient time currently, I'm simply posting the composition first and will return to comment upon it later.
Till then!
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