Out of This World Elaine Chan
Words checked = 2421 Words in Oxford 3000 = 92%
Elaine Chan E4B Instructor: Kenneth M. Smith Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages Kaohsiung, Taiwan June 2010
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Contents Story introduction……...............2 About the author……………….3 I Am Nobody……………..……..4 Are You Ready?............................7 Departure………….………..….15 Next Station – Universe..............19 There Is “Moonquake” …..........24 Return to the origin……….........27 Had a Blast……………....……..29 I Am Somebody……….……..…31 Sources of the Pictures……..…...33 Acknowledgements……………...34
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Story Introduction Trista was nobody. She had only one friend, Blithe, who was also an orphan. They
have
completely
different
personalities. Blithe was a cheerful person and curious about everything. He was enthusiastic about science. One day, they visited a museum. Blithe and Trista snuck into the dark room and then started their adventure.
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About the Author Elaine Chan, was born in Miaoli, Taiwan in 1990. I am a 19-year-old student in Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. First of all, I enjoy watching all kinds of movies, especially adventure and fantasy. Moreover, when I created
this
novel,
I
obtained
an
abundance of inspiration from movies. Second, I enjoy traveling. I like exploring nature. A Chinese proverb says “It is better
to
travel
voluminously.”
far
than
Definitely,
to I
read
derived
inspiration from my experience and combined them with my imagination. I hope you will enjoy “Out of This World”!
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I Am Nobody I don’t know where my soul is. What is my purpose in life? Who cares about me?
My name is Trista. I am nobody. Why was I born in this world? I really don’t know. Certainly, I am not an attractive person and I also lack confidence in myself. I always look down to think, but I am taller than other girls my age. I have extremely short, red hair and freckles but nobody paid attention to me. I always look pale and skinny like a patient. Surely, I am nobody. I have no 5
family as I have been an orphan since I was born about 8 months old. I am living in an orphanage which is in the small village of Huntly in northern England. I am really nobody. I have been living in the orphanage for almost 14 years but only one person really understands me well. Most people don’t want to get along with me except for Blithe who is my only friend. Blithe is also an orphan. He is my only friend and can bear a gloomy person like me. He is totally opposite of me. Blithe is a cheerful person and always curious about everything he sees. Unlike him, I always hold a pessimistic view toward
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life. Every day I had been lonely either in body or spirit. Especially, it likes to visit me at night. I am afraid that this monster may swallow me up. When these feelings arise I would quickly get out of bed and take a walk around the orphanage. Coincidently, I always meet Blithe. Different from me, he is thinking so much about his favorite science that he can’t sleep. He would tell me a lot of his dreams and I can easily forget my monster. The moment is definitely precious for me. I felt alive again; otherwise most of time I don’t know where my soul is.
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Are you ready? Something unbelievable happened!
As usual, I went to school with Blithe. Today we would visit an art museum. Most of the students were not interested in art, including both of us. When we arrived at the art museum, I felt a little strange atmosphere surrounding the museum. When the teacher was explaining all the paintings, drawings, statues and carvings, Blithe secretly told something to me. 8
“Hey, Trista, there is a dark room opening onto that corridor. Let’s find out what’s over there!” Blithe said excitedly. I was not surprised what he said to me because he is an adventurous person and never afraid of risks. “Sorry, I am not interested in that. I don’t want to follow you,” I said coldly. But unexpectedly, he grabbed my left hand and quickly ran into the dark room. When we were standing in front of the dark room, my face turned red and I was panting. I looked at him in disgust. What Blithe has done made me angry like a red rag to a bull.
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“Don’t you think this dark room is mysterious? Maybe we’ll discover something other people don’t know.” Blithe just wanted me not to be angry with him. “No, I am not as curious as you. You can discover by yourself,” I said impatiently. “Sh, don’t say anything, all right? Let’s go into the dark room.” Blithe cautiously snuck into it. I just walked unwillingly behind him. When we got in suddenly all the lights were bright, but we didn’t turn them on. The dark room was enormous. Both of us gasped at the sight. We were stunned by all the
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statues. There were a variety of statues including ancient artists, musicians and inventors. “I can’t believe it!” Blithe shouted loudly. “Yeah, yeah.’’ I was amazed at what I saw. All the statues were like giants- massive and tall. There were two statues much smaller than the others. Blithe quickly walked in front of the two weird statues. “Check out these weird statues. Come over here.” Blithe was extremely excited about the two statues. Both of us stood and observed the two
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statues. All of a sudden the two statues moved and became real human- beings. We were surprised. We ran as quickly as we could. Blithe and I hid outside the dark room. “I I I want to go back,” I said dreadfully. “Hey, why are you so surprised?” the female statues said. Blithe and I kept rubbing our eyes and tried to figure out what was going on. “WWWWho are you? WWhy you are moving? Are you ghosts?” Blithe asked fearfully. He looked scared to death. “Don’t be afraid of us. Come over here. We can’t leave this room,” the male
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statue said. “We won’t hurt you!” the female said kindly. Blithe walked slowly near them, but I kept hidden from myself. “I am Blithe. Why are you here?’’ Blithe was not afraid at all. I stood far away to look at them. The male statue who having a white beard and eyebrows looked like a sophisticate. His face was seamed with wrinkles. I was thinking he might be a friendly and open-minded person. “I am Vincent. We have a big task to fulfill. ” The male statue wearing a dark red cotton robe and yellow scarf said
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heartily to us. “Yeah, I am Nicole. We really need your help. Please join us!” The female statue appealed to us for support. She looked much younger than the male statue. I guessed she might be around our age. Nicole with blue eyes was wearing a pair of glasses. She was also having the same hair style alike me. She noticed that I was looking at her. I quickly avoided making eye contact with her. “Please come here! “ Both of them beckoned. “I’m going with you! “ Blithe responded enthusiastically. “How about that girl? What is your
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name?” Nicole asked. “I am Blithe and she is Trista. We are going with you! Don’t worry about that!” Blithe said quickly before I answered her question. “But……” I wanted to refuse, but Blithe quickly held my left hand and pushed me in front of them.
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Departure Feel it with your heart! Try something new!
“No, I am not interested in that. I have to go now,’’ I said as I turned back. “Show a little backbone,” Vincent said. Suddenly, all of us took something like a ship but the ship had wings. It looked like a toy. I didn’t have much time to think about the unique exterior of the ship because suddenly we flied into the sky. 16
“Wwow” I screamed. I wish I was daydreaming. I continuously pinched myself. I was not sure whether this was real or not. “Are we in heaven? Did we just pass through the roof?” Blithe unbelievably said while bravely looking around. “Yeah, we are taking the sky ship,” Vincent said. “How did that happen?” I just couldn’t believe what I have seen and done. “Let’s start out adventure. Don’t ask why, just feel it with you heart!” Nicole said in a relaxed and inviting tone. “There’s nothing like flying,” I have never taken an airplane before. I just
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couldn’t believe the sceneries I was seeing. “You can say that again!” Blithe replied strongly agreeing with me. “Both of you need to jump in and get your feet wet,” Vincent said. “Let’s get this show on the road,” Nicole shouted excitedly. There were vast number of houses and animals. They became smaller and smaller like toys while we were continuing to rise higher and higher into the sky. We see greenness beneath the azure, as of spring meadows. Moreover, an unimpeded sweep of meadows and hills formed a peaceful
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setting. We also could clearly discriminate the coast between the lands. When Blithe and I kept marveling at what we were seeing, Nicole told Vincent something seriously. “We’ve run out of magic,” Vincent said. “Get ready to land,” Nicole said to us. “No, I am not ready,” Blithe argued not wanting to stop enjoyed the moment.
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Next Station- Universe Don’t make us wait any longer!
“Hang on…” When I was caught off guard, I said as loud as I could. My eyes hardly opened to see what was going on. When we landed, I came up with some special feeling alike we have dropped into black hole. “Wow………” I yelled. “Will you keep it down?” Blithe unwillingly looked at me. I felt really embarrassed. 20
“Where are we now? Why are we standing on an uneven surface?” I tried to calm myself down. “We are standing on the moon to observe the universe. Do you know why there are many deep holes on the moon?” Nicole asked. “Now we are on the moon! Fat chance,” I felt quiet disoriented. “There are hundreds of deep holes on the moon called craters,” When Vincent mentioned this, he pointed at the holes on the moon’s surface. “Yeah, why people always think the moon is big and bright because it is much closer to us, compare to the
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stars,” Nicole explained. “Is that a shooting star?” Blithe excitingly asked. “Yeah, that’s really amazing! It’s just like a fireworks display,” Vincent said with a big smile. “Stars are totally different. They’re millions of kilometers away,” Nicole said. “They are extremely hot. If we get too close we will burn up,” Blithe said. “How close is the nearest star?” I asked curiously. “After the sun, more than 4 light years away,” Nicole said easily answering my question.
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“And that’s very far,” Vincent said. “We could easily observe amazing universe without a telescope. Trista, we should thank our lucky stars we have a chance,” Blithe was bubbling with excitement. “We can also observe nine planets which circle around the sun. The inner solar system contains Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.” Vincent didn’t finish, but Blithe quickly interrupted him. We gazed at the 9 planets which circle their own paths. “And the outer solar system contains Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Venus is the closest planet to
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Earth. I can tell you more.” Blithe wanted to share everything he knew. “You are brilliant,” Nicole paid Blithe a compliment. While they were talking, I felt dizzy.
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There is “a Moonquake” What a spectacular place!
All of us dropped into another black hole. Blithe woke me up. When I opened my eyes, he already had been astonished by the view in front of us. “Am I in paradise or a hill?” Maybe I just had a headache. “We are in the forest. Let’s take a walk in the forest,” Vincent said. “There are a variety of plants and trees. 25
I wonder what this tree’s called,” I asked curiously. “It almost looks sad,” Blithe said. “That’s why it’s called a weeping willow,” Vincent explained. “Did you see something moving in the river?” I asked “Yeah, it looks like frogs. We need to keep quiet,” Vincent said in a lower and hidden voice. “We should not bother them,” Nicole added quietly. We just watched a world of animals when we took a walk. I had a glimpse of amphibians, reptiles and insects. “There is a crocodile taking a sunbath,”
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Blithe whispered. “I also saw many snakes and turtles around us.” I was so surprised because they were extremely closed to us. Moreover, we could easily touch and grab them. It was incredible. Blithe pointed at the sky; there were a row of birds and sparrows standing on a branch of tree. There were many species of animals, but when we kept walking, animals suddenly disappeared. It was really weird. “What’s the matter?” Blithe wondered.
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Return to the origin Everyone needs to protect nature.
“An industry factory is over there. The river has been polluted,” Nicole said disappointed. “Unbelievable. All the fish in the river are contaminated. There is garbage everywhere like plastic bags, plastic bottles and cans,” I said angrily. “Why don’t we try our best to return things to what it should be?” Blithe said. 28
“Let’s do it right now,” I said. We picked up garbage and recycled some of it. Although it was getting better than it was, I was deeply concerned about our environment. “Hope we have some magic that can help the environment return to its healthy situation,” Blithe said sadly. “Vincent is going to clean this mess. Don’t worry about that,” Nicole promised us. “It’s Greek to me,” Blithe replied confused.
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Had a blast Had a wonderful journey! Time to go.
“It’s time to say goodbye,” Vincent said unexpectedly. “What are you getting at?” I asked. “We are from the moon. In fact, we are the people on the moon, but we are not aliens,” Vincent said. “Really?” I just couldn’t understand. “We just wanted to take a trip to Earth. We were really lucky to meet both of you,” Nicole said undoubtedly.
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“Oh, my God,” Blithe shouted at them surprisingly. “Thank you for your company. We really had a blast,” Vincent said. “We need to go.” Vincent waved us goodbye. We really went to pieces when they said goodbye to us. All of a sudden, Vincent and Nicole disappeared.
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I am somebody Finding the purpose in life.
We just returned from the dark room when the teacher was looking for us. Blithe and I looked at each other and laughed. We had the same feeling in our mind. After the adventure, I entirely changed my personality. I became more friendly and open-minded. Trying many different things is spice of life. Finally, I found my purpose in life. I wanted to protect our environment. And Blithe 32
had more enthusiasm for astronomy. We were both filled with gratitude toward Vincent and Nicole for the marvelous adventure.
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Sources of the Pictures Cover page http://www.myspace.com/seabear P5 http://www.photo.phoenixfeather.net/galle ry/little_girls p8 www.noobtoob.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=247 533... P16 lib.khgs.tn.edu.tw/photo/9402.htm p20 lib.khgs.tn.edu.tw/photo/9402.htm p25 http://www.flickr.com/photos/face_it/900673849/ p28 http://www.flickr.com/ p30 http://www.google.com.tw/imgres?imgurl=http:// mypaper.pchome.com.tw/show/articl p32 http://www.google.com.tw/imgres?imgurl=http:// mypaper.pchome.com.tw/show/articl
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Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Mr. Kenneth M. Smith for his supervision and guidance. He helps me to broaden my view and knowledge. Also I would like to special thanks to my friends. They helped me a lot to finish this novel. I also got inspirations from them. Moreover, I usually discussed with them how to extend my contents. They always give a hand to me in my writing process.
Elaine
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Out of This World Written by Elaine Chan Out of This World Trista was nobody. She had only one friend, Blithe, who was also an orphan. They have completely different personalities. One day, they visited a museum. Blithe and Trista snuck into the dark room and then started their adventure. What’s going on next? □ upper ■ intermediate □ elementary □ beginner □ starter
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