A Christmas Story

The music coming from the house

Paulo Coelho

On Christmas Eve, the king invited the prime minister to join him for their usual walk together. He enjoyed seeing the decorations in the streets, but since he didn’t want his subjects to spend too much money on these just to please him, the two men always disguised themselves as traders from some far distant land.
They walked through the centre of the city, admiring the lights, the Christmas trees, the candles burning on the steps of the houses, the stalls selling gifts, and the men, women and children hurrying off to celebrate a family Christmas around a table laden with food.
On the way back, they passed through a poorer area, where the atmosphere was quite different. There were no lights, no candles, no delicious smells of food about to be served. There was hardly a soul in the street, and, as he did every year, the king remarked to the prime minister that he really must pay more attention to the poor in his kingdom. The prime minister nodded, knowing that the matter would soon be forgotten again, buried beneath the day-to-day bureaucracy of budgets to be approved and discussions with foreign dignitaries.
Suddenly, they heard music coming from one of the poorest houses. The hut was so ramshackle and the rotten wooden timbers so full of cracks, that they were able to peer through and see what was happening inside. And what they saw was utterly absurd: an old man in a wheelchair apparently crying, a shaven-headed young woman dancing, and a young man with sad eyes shaking a tambourine and singing a folk song.
‘I’m going to find out what they’re up to,’ said the king.
He knocked. The music stopped, and the young man came to the door.
‘We are merchants in search of a place to sleep. We heard the music, saw that you were still awake, and wondered if we could spend the night here.’
‘You can find shelter in a hotel in the city. We, alas, cannot help you. Despite the music, this house is full of sadness and suffering.’
‘And may we know why?’
‘It’s all because of me.’ It was the old man in the wheelchair who spoke. ‘I’ve spent my life teaching my son calligraphy, so that he could one day get a job as a palace scribe. But the years have passed and no post has ever come up. And then, last night, I had a stupid dream: an angel appeared to me and asked me to buy a silver goblet because, the angel said, the king would be coming to visit me. He would drink from the goblet and give my son a job.
‘The angel was so persuasive that I decided to do as he said. Since we have no money, my daughter-in-law went to the market this morning to sell her hair so that we could buy that goblet over there. The two of them are doing their best to get me in the Christmas spirit by singing and dancing, but it’s no use.’
The king saw the silver goblet, asked to be given a little water to quench his thirst and, before leaving, said to the family:
‘Do you know, we were talking to the prime minister only today, and he told us that an opening for a palace scribe would be announced next week.’
The old man nodded, not really believing what he was hearing, and bade farewell to the strangers. The following morning, however, a royal proclamation was read out in all the city streets; a new scribe was needed at court. On the appointed day, the audience room at the palace was packed with people eager to compete for that much-sought-after post. The prime minister entered and asked everyone there to prepare their paper and pens:
‘Here is the subject of the composition: Why is an old man weeping, a shaven-headed woman dancing, and a sad young man singing?’
A murmur of disbelief went round the room. No one knew how to tell such a story, apart, that is, from the shabbily dressed young man sitting in one corner, who smiled broadly and began to write.

Based on an Indian story.


Translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa

Life Itself Will Let You Know By: Anthony Quinn and Charlie

My dearest fellow bloggers,
This song is dedicated to all of you who are always keeping their dreams alive...
This was the graduation song we sang during my elementary days.Be inspired!Keep on Dreaming!!!



Charlie: Are dreams just things that live inside you? Or do these dreams sometimes come true? And do the grown-ups have them too?

Anthony: Oh yes, my son, but you’re just at the beginning. Just follow your dreams wherever they go and life itself will let you know. (Chorus: And life itself will let you know.)

Charlie: And who will show me all the answers? Will someone help me understand? What will I be when I'm a man?

Anthony: That no one can tell. Tomorrow is a wishing well. You've got to live each moment, everyday.

Charlie: If I stumble and fall, please be there when I call. Will you give me your hand and show me the way?

Anthony: My son, you’re just at the beginning. Just follow your dreams wherever they go and life itself will let you know. Just be, be what you are. Reach out, reach out and take a star and I’ll be with you constantly.

Charlie: I will hold my head high. I’ll touch the sky. You’ll always be here with me. I know I’m just at the beginning…

Anthony: My son, my life is almost over…

Charlie: I’ll follow my dreams wherever they go…

Anthony: And yours has only just begun

Charlie: And life itself will let you know.

Anthony: Just remember, my son, I love you!

Chorus: I know I’m just at the beginning. I’ll follow my dreams wherever they go. And life itself will let you know…let you know…let you know…

Be A Smart in Math!!!

Answer the following math and logic problems. Show your solutions! : )

1. Two mothers and two daughters ate 3 slices of bread for breakfast, each eating exactly one slice of bread. How could that be?
2. Find the 105th term of the arithmetic sequence: 5, 3, 1, -1, -3…
3. The sum of three numbers is 40. The second is 5 more than the first. The third is twice the first. What are the three numbers?
4. Find the slope of the line passing through the pair of points P1(1.5, 5) and P2(2.5, 2.5).
5. Fuji is 9 times as old as his sister. In 5 years he will be 5 times as old as her sister. How old is he now?
6. Simplify the expression: MathSmart Problem
7. Factor the expression completely: 4x2 – 14x + 12.
8. In an Algebra test, the highest grade is 30 points more than the lowest grade. The sum of the two grades is 162. Hazel’s score is 13 more than the lowest grade. What is Hazel’s score?
9. The perimeter of a rectangle is 74cm. The length is one more twice its width. Find the area of the rectangle.
10. Solve the triangles: MathSmart Triangles

Submit your answers including your complete name, school, designation (year level), and contact number to smartschools@smart.com.ph on or before October 23, 2008.

Ten (10) MathSmarts will win a gift from Smart so send your entries now!

Learning English via Youtube

Hey People!
View our videos via youtube justy type lornabeduya in the search area and you can view our videos...write your comments and suggestions through our official web blog over blogger.com

Thanks!
Ma'am Lorns

REASONS WHY THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IS HARD TO LEARN ...shared by my friend Robert Deustch

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18) After a number of injections my jaw got number.
19) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
20) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
21) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?

If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices?

Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend, that you comb through annals of history but not a single annal? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few are alike? How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell another?

Have you noticed that we talk about certain things only when they are absent? Have you ever seen a horseful carriage or a strapful gown? Met a sung hero or experienced requited love? Have you ever run into someone who was combobulated, gruntled, ruly or peccable? And where are all those people who ARE spring chickens or who would ACTUALLY hurt a fly?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race (which, of course, isn't a race at all). That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible. However, when the lights are out, they are invisible. Why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I
end it.

Mandaue City Comprehensive NHS is nominated for Smartschools' Website of the Month.....Please Vote!!!!

To all friendships and Fellow Comprehensians....
PLs. vote our school's website as it has been nominated for this week.Visit:www.smartschools.ph... to vote for Mandaue City Comprehensive National HS.Let's support our school and make it win!!!

Thank you for your Support!!!!
LORNA BEDUYA
Mccnhs Smartschools DPSA Coordinator

I am Yours

I’m Yours - Jason Mraz Music Code