Trafalgar School - Echoes Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

Page 16 text:

My next lesson is how not to do Latin translation. This time lie on your back with your knees doubled up to support your book. Write the English translation above the Latin in the textbook: this makes it confusing, as it involves a great deal of erasing which practically obliterates the original text. My next bit of advice is, if you can ' t do the translation, pretend you did the wrong piece. Then if you are asked to translate during class you can look very much surprised and exclaim, O, I did the wrong one! This is good if you can get away with it. If the mistress is wise to this excuse, however, don ' t even attempt to do ihe assignment, and just hope you won ' t be asked. Next we come to history. If you are among the poor unfortunates who have to take notes during class, be sure to s cribble them down making abbreviations which you will not be able to deciplier later. Dreaming is another delightful habit to acquire, which will probably account for the many gaps in your notes. Then leave these notes until the night before you are asked to hand them in. This results in near writer ' s cramp and a cranky disposition, because it took you half the night to copy them into your good notebook. I might add that this procedure is sure to give you an A. French will be the subject of our next discussion. Most pupils find this language very difficult, but if you follow my expert advice I am confident that your marks will go up considerably. For example, if the assignment is to learn verbs and a vocabulary, find the noisiest room in the house, preferably one where your brother is playing with the dog. Turn the radio on — to a comedian if possible — and settle down on the nearest sofa. Turn to the right page, look at the verbs disgustedly and decide that Bob Hope is much more agreeable. After half an hour of this diligent studying, having tried to concentrate above the sound of the radio and the barking of the dog, decide you know the French well enough, and give it up as a bad job. This last bit of advice is intended for people who are asked to write an essay on just anything . Don ' t sit down and do any constructive thinking; that would be fatal — you would be sure to think of something; and as for looking up ideas in a reference book — perish the thought! Just phone one of the girls and discuss the situation. From my experience I predict that when you have finished you will be in the same position as when you started — confused. Finallv in desperation write on a tired old subject which half tlie class will use too: but don ' t let that worry you, it ' s a minor detail. When you start to write, don ' t do a rough copy — it calls for extra work. .lust put your essay right on to good paper: this makes the job of correcting twice the work. My last suggestion is an important one: no punctuation. It ' s too easy to read with silly little details like periods and commas stuck here and there. Make it as brief as possible: long essays are always so interesting! In closing I would just like to add, if anyone finds my course successful ■ — please let me know. Wendy Child, Form Vb, Gumming House.

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LITERARY BEAUTY Where does beauty end? Beyond the mountains far That fade, in purple mist, Into that glowing star? Where is this beauty found? In the lacy waves that creep And shatter on sandy shores. Or in autumn ' s harvest reap? Beyond this hour, this life, j Beyond, in far-off rainbows That o ' er us spill their luring gold. In the rising love that flows? Where does this beauty end? There is no everlasting stop. Only the pierced heart That once was loved, and now is not. Mary Asselin, Form Arts VI, Barclay House. HOW NOT TO STUDY STATISTICS show that most students study, or should study, about ten hours every week, and I am sure that many books have been written instructing would-be high school graduates in the correct procedure. My object, however, is to teach people how not to study — in five easy lessons. First wf tackle geometry. The articles required are a maths scribbler, textbook, a blunt pencil aiul a geometry set with half the parts missing. Don ' t even consider doing your work at a desk, just lie face down on yotxr bed so that it is impossible to write, and keep that position for ten to twenty minutes, spending no less than two minutes on geometry and eighteen dreaming about the good time you had last week-end. At the end of the allotted time, decide that you simply can ' t do the horrid stuff, and go downstairs to spend the next half hour on the telephone. [13]

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THROUGH A VIEW-MASTER Oh, how I long for that land far away, For the silver sand where the children play. For the foam-tipped surf and the birds on high, The dark green palms ' neath the pale blue sky. Oh, how I long for that far-away land, For the redwoods far from the silver sand, For Patrick ' s Point, and Custer ' s Tree, All of which I hope to see. Oh, liow I long for that land far away Where the medicine-man and the brave hold sway, Where the chief and his tribe, in their strange attire Hold council round a leaping fire. Now that my lovely dream is past, Fve travelled far and I ' ve travelled fast. But some day soon I hope to view The beautifvil scenes I ' ve described to you. ITH A SAD, tear-stained face, she walked into the room and sat down Vt quietly by the window. She felt as though she could cry no more; as though all the tears that bad ever been inside her were gone forever. She was beginning to get over the shock of losing her parents in such a rjiiick imbearable way, but now she felt loneliness and misery creeping in. ■ ' Plane crash . She would never be able to read or hear those terrible, biting words again without re-living the moment she had so recently gone through. ' lien that telegram arrived, telling her that the plane carrying her parents home had crashed into the sea with no survivors, she had not been able to realize that she would never see them again. It had taken nearly two days for her to understand that there would be no Hi ya, sugarplum from her father, aiul no Who ' s the heartbreaker this time ' ; ' from her adored mother; there wouM be just no anything. Jane Allison, Form IVu, Ross House. REVELATION [15]