A pIck of the 8th graders’ work and reflectIons on thIs year

The work you are about to enjoy has not been edited.

FOREIGN LANGUAGES

DEPARTMENT

2011-2012

bits & bobs

After readIng the BreadwInner….

WE READ MORE

ABOUT Parvana:

The second book in the trilogy:

Reflections on the heartbreaking story :

We drew our home life in a humorous way..

hidden gems uneartheD…

THE first runner-up in the 3rd english story writing competition –

CONgrats MINA!

The Cactus and the Desert Rose By Mina CEZAİRLİ

If you ever touched a cactus, then you’ll know that a cactus has sharp, pointy thorns. But have you

ever wondered why that is? They may tell you lots of lies, but I know the truth.

Truth is, a long, long time ago the goddess Demeter wanted a giant garden in the middle of the desert

with lovely pink roses in it. She asked the other gods if she could grow those beautiful roses in dry

desert land but they said that roses needed water.

“These would be the prettiest flowers on the Earth, but as you see, to be the prettiest, you have to face

difficulties.” She used to say. All the gods of Olympus responded her saying that it isn’t necessary to

grow a plant that lived in such hard conditions.”

Demeter wasn’t satisfied by that response and she was weary from lack of faith but she didn’t give

up. One day, while she was watching the desert from the sky, she saw a muscular young man

walking through the desert all by himself.

The young boy’s name was Cactus.

Cactus was a quite handsome young man. He had long black hair and really tan skin caused by

walking under the sun all day long. He had very muscular arms and body. On the inside, he had

such a big heart. He was also helpful and extremely charming.

Despite his good looking and perfect character, he was unfortunate about finding the love of his life.

He was ready to give up everything to find the woman of his dreams. He walked miles and miles every

day to find love but couldn’t find anyone at all.

It was a typical, torrid day in the desert but he could barely see the silhouette of a person, not far

away. He got closer and closer to the image. He first thought it was a mirage, but suddenly the woman

talked to him.

“You look like you’re strong and young.” said the woman. “Could I ask you a favor?”

“Yes, anything.” said Cactus. He was amazed by the energy coming from the mysterious woman.

“I want you to carry two buckets of water to here in my garden every day.

Cactus couldn’t ask why. The lady seemed so powerful that Cactus was sort of speechless.

“Do you know who I am?” the lady asked. Cactus shook his head to say no.

“I’m Demeter. The goddess of harvest. I’ve been trying to grow lovely pink roses here, but as you ma

guess, It’s impossible because of the dry earth here. That’s why I need the water.”

Cactus accepted the offer. He carried water to Demeter’s garden every day. It was hard working under

the boiling sun but in return, he was rewarded with lots of gold.

Although Cactus had considered it as a pointless plan, Demeter had had beautiful roses. She sat and

watched her gorgeous flowers for hours. All the other gods of Olympus was charmed by the beauty of

the garden and they all congratulated Demeter for growing those in such hard conditions.

Cactus’ life was going better day by day. He was really rich, he was a lot more muscular and all the

girls in town were crazy about him!

But Cactus knew something was still missing.

He still couldn’t find love after all. He knew that spoiled town girls who were lining in front of

Cactus’ house couldn’t provide him true love.

Meanwhile in Olympus, Aphrodite was extremely jealous. Those pink roses were said to be more

beautiful than Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty! She either had to find a way to be more

beautiful than she was now – which was impossible – or she had to destroy the roses.

Aphrodite knew what Cactus wanted, and she followed him to his house. Cactus recognized the

goddess of love in a second.

“I know what you want.” said Aphrodite. “I’m going to give you the most beautiful girl ever.”

The next morning, Cactus saw a beautiful young girl in front of his door. She had a beautiful,

round pale white face and blue eyes. Under sunshine, her golden curls were as shiny as her

crystal eyes. The girl’s name was Adenia.

With her angel voice, she introduced herself. Cactus and Adenia started talking and they fell

in love. Cactus adored Adenia and Adenia’s eyes couldn’t see anyone but Cactus. As the time

passed, Adenia and Cactus spent more time together, loved each other more and more everyday

and they’ve turned into each other’s whole world.

Because of Cactus’ uncontrollable love for Adenia, he started ignoring his job for Demeter.

Demeter’s roses were getting rotten. Aphrodite’s plan was working. Demeter was absolutely

furious . She decided to punish Cactus.

She turned Cactus into a hideous plant with a green body and sharp thorns all over, so he

wouldn’t be able to touch anyone and nobody would ever love him. Including Adenia. Demeter

eventually turned out to be completely wrong. Their love was much stronger than she thought

that Adenia kept walking to Cactus everyday but she was suffering. Adenia couldn’t touch

him, hug him and kiss him ever again. Adenia was so desperate, she begged Demeter to turn her

into a desert rose sos he could be with Cactus every second without any difficulties.

Demeter did turn Adenia into the most beautiful desert rose with pink – white petals. Cactus got

to be with Adenia anytime they wanted but as Cactus’ punishment , he kept the thorns forever

and no other human could love him ever again.

By YESUA YILDIRIM

If you want to read the rest visit

http://www.e-isik.com/tr/index.asp

BOOK:1 THE FIGHT WITH THE GIANTS

It was a dark stormy night. In the middle of the night there was an

earthquake. It was so powerful that half the buildings got destroyed. Then it

was morning. My name is Yeshu and I live in Texas.I go to a school called

The School (I‘m not kidding that’s its real name). I went down for breakfast. I

live with my mom. I don’t know who my dad was I never knew him. My mom

says he was lost in a mining expedition. I went to the school and saw my best

friend Jon.I don’t know his last name so I just call him Jon and he just calls

me Yeshu. We went to the class and saw James.He is very smart. He is

Californian.We’ve known each other since we were two years old. He said

‘S’up Yesh.”We did our secret handshake and sat down on our seats and the

teacher came in. School was going well until I saw Madison. She is the school

bully. Once I even told Jon Madison wasn’t human. He looked straight in to

my eyes and said “You’re absolutely right.”I ran for the boys WC but Madison

followed me. I said “Um, this is the boys WC.” “Do not lieYeshu.” She said in

a scrappy voice. I checked the door. It was the boys WC.I looked back at

Madison except she wasn’t Madison anymore.She looked like a dolphin

except she was blackish purplish.She had teeth the size of a dagger and her

own size was bigger than a car.She attacked.I ran for the closest window but

she caught my leg with her mouth and my leg started to bleed like mad.I

ripped a tooth out and stabbed her heart out.I won’t lie I fainted.When I

woke I was in the infirmary.James and Jon were looking down at me.I

asked“What happened to me?”Jon answered “You went in to a coma we

found you in the bathroom.”I went home after school. Something had

happened in the toilet. I didn’t tell my mum much just said “I had a coma

now I’m fine.”

We READ FAIRY TALES :

NOT THE TRADITIONAL TALES BUT THE REVOLTING ONES

REVOLTING RHYMES

BY ROALD DAHL

THE NOVEL WE WOULD NEVER GIVE UP:

Holes BY L.SACHAR

camp green lake brochures…

we gave advice to zero and stanley pretended to be agony aunt:

Reflections…

We designed t-shirts fort he camp with catchy slogans

We thought, we imagined, we discussed and we wrote….

A spooky story by ekin gokay

A blog entry by Bulut bulgu

News from Green lake reported by selin oncel:

Argumentative on cell phones at school by isil gulseren:

Journal entry by esin menceloglu

Journal entry by levent saglam:

It was hard for me to chose which advice I have given is the best, in fact, I don't remember any of them except for the one that I gave when I was about five or six… Believe it or not I was actually thin when I was a kid, my teacher used to count the beans that I should eat. And I hated the school food. So I always had to stay at the hall and not come back until it was all eaten. But I never forced myself to eat, I used to wait for the teacher to leave, then I leave too. When she asked me if I ate it all, I naturally said of course! I was used to it but my friend wasn't. Any way, it was me, my friend and a few stuff at the lunch hall. The teacher was gone as always, and if he wasn't there I wouldn't stay either but we were chatting and eating that purple salad very slowly. The hall was silent, the lights were low, it was really creepy annoying. Then I suddenly realised it was being a dummy to stay there, such a waste of time! So I told him to cheat (that's my super advice), we brought our trays to the place where we should leave our them and got back to the class. Of course when she asked us, we told her that we did eat our meals but our teacher, somehow understood that we didn't actually eat and asked us; "You're not lying aren't you". We were like frozen! She called the stuff, asked her to check our trays. The woman, so quickly went down stairs, found our trays and got back upstairs… How could she do that! A special power outer space must have helped her to find the right trays, or she didn't really check and lied just like we did! I guess I should have hide it more professionally… I wonder if anybody has had such an embarrassing moment at the age of five… But it never didn't make me give up, I always hated school food, so I used it until I started bringing my own packed lunch

journal entry by levent saglam

Description of a friend by artun dalyan:

An e-mail to organize the graduation party by resit alpsal:

BY CEREN AKKaLYONCU

Now that you’ve graduated,

Your adventure has begun.

Your schooling has prepared you

For the race life has you run.

We praise you for your efforts,

And send good wishes, too,

For a future filled with happiness,

And your fondest dreams come true.

Our last words before we say goodbye…

You’re all special in your own way.

You all got something to offer.

You have to think about what you

want to do, and do it…