Robots: for better or for worse?

No one can deny that robots can be a great helper in our lives. However, when robots are overused, it may cause harm to our lives. There is a question of whether robots do more harm, and I believe it is the former – they indeed help our lives.       

        Firstly, robots make people's lives safer. Robots can do dangerous jobs for humans, for example, using robots to work in nuclear plants and to explore other planets in the space. Robots can help humans reach the places that are not suitable for human beings to live or stay. Robots manage to handle the tasks in dangerous environments for us. They are truly the great helpers for humans.

        Secondly, robots improve people's quality of life. Robots can do the household chores for people, so they have more free time. Can you imagine the time that the only way to do those chores by your own hands? Millions of families have been free from sweeping floor and mopping with the help of robot vacuum cleaner. Another example is robot chefs. They make dishes at restaurants with the same quality comparable to a chef. Moreover, they will not get tired nor sick. They can work non-stop for 24 hours a day. With the help of robots, people can have more leisure time.

        Robots are also widely used in education. It allows students to learn from robots. According to a survey, 85% of the students interviewed loved learning from a robotic teacher. This mode of learning is innovative and exciting. Students are then more motivated and willing to raise questions when they have lessons with robots because they can ask the robotic teachers whatever they want with unlimited questions. Robots have created a new way of learning. 

        In conclusion, robots are beneficial to humans in different aspects of life. It makes people safer, improves people's quality of life and helps students to learn more effectively and innovatively.

Fu Ting Pong(3A)


Beauty Contests

Good afternoon. Today, I’m debating against the motion ‘Beauty contests should be banned.’ I have three arguments to support my position.

Firstly, beauty contests are a grand event where women’s kindness, tenderness are attributed to world peace. Beauty contests are a manifestation of social progress where women can freely and fully display their wisdom and beauty. These are the result of women’s liberation and the upsurge of the feminist movement. Miss Universe Pageant winner Paulina Vega accepted an invitation by Farc (the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) to participate in talks between the guerrilla organisation and the government.

Secondly, beauty contests can boost the economy. Beauty contests are sponsored by commercial organizations, so one of the purposes of holding the contests is to promote industrial and commercial products or as a booster program for industrial and commercial exhibitions. When a beauty contest is broadcast on TV, it can earn advertising fees. Top international beauty contests can bring in as much as $1.2 billion in revenue and 30 % and 40 % of the tourism boost to the host country. The impact of the event for the host country is worth $3.6 billion in advertising spending.

Finally, beauty contests can promote international exchanges. Various beauty contests are held in different countries every year, so that countries can enhance their understanding and deepen their friendly relations. Miss World Pageant winner Zhang Zilin conquered the world through the platform of beauty contests and demonstrated to the world the beauty of China.

In summary, beauty contests let people know that women’s beauty can contribute to the world. Therefore, today’s motion must fall. Thank you.

Leung Lok Yin(3B)


A Meaningful Event

Last year, I joined a charity event called ‘Money for the hunger’, which aimed to raise money for the people who suffer from hunger, so that they can buy some food. Due to the fact that I was a member of the Social Service Club, I was invited to join this wonderful event.

    At 6 am on the day of the event, we went to the school hall and made sure everyone had not eaten anything. I was excited before the event began. The event started soon after the chairperson of the Social Service Club had arrived at the school hall. We could not eat anything for 30 hours. To forget our hunger, we played some games and talked with each other. At night time on the first day, a girl among us cried suddenly. We tried our best to comfort her and she told us that she was hungry and nervous. We talked to her for a while and she promised us that she would not quit the event until the end of it.

        Although we could not sleep well at night time, we played some fun games and I made some new friends. They were kind-hearted. One of the friends told me that he had already taken part in similar events three times before. He had also shared with me some ways to

raise money for the people in need. Finally, the event came to the end. We had raised more than 2,000 dollars for the people suffering from hunger. The chairperson of the Social Service Club thanked us for joining and we all felt the event was a huge success.

   Although we all felt hungry and tired, we still thought that the event was very meaningful. We could have a better understanding about how people feel who suffer from hunger, it was a great challenge for all of us. If you are kind-hearted and committed, you should join this event to help many people who are suffering from hunger!

Lam Ho Hin(3B)


A Special School Trip

 I have always dreamt of seeing and meeting kangaroos in Australia, so I was very excited to be on a school trip to Australia last summer holiday.

     The flight to Australia was long. After we arrived, we went straight to Australia Zoo, which is home to thousands of wildlife. We found that the zoo was so huge that we could not see all the animals in just one day. Nevertheless, we met many animals, including those that can only be seen in Australia – kangaroos and koalas. Anyone visiting Australia should meet these animals because they are so cute. We took many photos with them. When it was time to say leave, everyone thought this was an amazing experience because we rarely see wildlife in Hong Kong.

     On the second day, we went to the beach. Although the beach was very crowded, we still enjoyed ourselves there. We sunbathed, swam and built sandcastles. We also bought ice cream from the food truck nearby the beach. The ice cream was delicious. We all had a relaxing time there. Anyone visiting Australia should visit the beach.

     One the last day of the trip, we visited the Australian museum. The museum was huge. There we learned about the history, culture and interesting animals of Australia. As I always like to know something new, this particular visit to the museum was definitely the best part of the trip. We also bought special souvenirs in the gift shop of the museum. I bought some key chains, animal magnets and a pen holder for my family and friends in Hong Kong.

     It was so much fun in Australia. I will definitely return someday to visit Australia again!

Li Tsz Kwan(3C)


Robots: Friend or Foe?

Recently, many people think that robots are decreasing the quality of human’s life. However, is it really true? I believe that robots do more good than harm to our society.

Firstly, robots can make everything automatic. For example, the current vehicle manufacturer Tesla has developed an auto pilot system, allowing people to select a location and the vehicle will go to the destination itself, which is significantly more efficient and really a godsend for lazy drivers. You may know the worldwide popular online shopping site Amazon, but did you know their warehouses are so massive that they use a disc-shaped tiny robot to transport supplies from place to place? In fact, many of the warehouses in the United States are run by these little helpers. 

Moreover, robots can also do things that people cannot normally do. For instance, NASA sends drones to outer space for space investigation. Though we may send astronauts, there is no denying that we are sending these fellows to a dangerous planet exposed to unknown risks just to take some photos. On the other hand, we can produce many drones which can be controlled from afar. Also, I bet all of us use the Internet on a daily basis. But did you know that above the atmosphere there are plenty of satellites monitoring the Earth, sending signals everywhere? These satellites aren’t even controlled by anyone but by complex control systems that can perform numerous telemetry, and data processing. 

Last but not least, robots have unlimited energy. For humans, it is tiring to work for a whole day, but for robots, they never get tired. Moreover, while we are having a rough time with our maths homework, a robot can solve them more easily with multiple calculations at once. There was once a Weiqi competition where they best Weiqi player Lee SeDol playing against a robot Alpha Go. Alpha Go learnt from the tactics from Lee in the whole process and finally outsmarted the human player and won. Behind the scenes were actually dozens of servers going inside this tireless doing countless calculations.

Overall, robots are beneficial for our society and also a sign of human progress. Not only can we make everything automatic, but we can also make great progress in space exploration and other research with the help of these inexhaustible machines.

Chen Ho Kwan(3C)


A Letter of Complaint to Pacific Cinema

Dear Sir/ Madam,

Re: Complaint regarding poor service

I am writing to complain against your cinema. I attended your theatre on 13th February. The film was great. However, the experience I had there made me feel extremely frustrated.

When I entered the theater, I saw a lot of rubbish in the aisle. It was irritating and the smell of the rubbish was also disgusting. I cannot understand why there was no cleaner available to clean up the mess?

Secondly, when the movie started, it was impossible to enjoy the movie because the quality of the sound was so poor. It was not only too soft to hear but the volume of the sound was also uneven. In addition, there were some sort of technical noises coming from behind the screen. At one point, the audience was hearing intermittent shrieks of deafening feedback and everyone in the audience had to cover their ears. Finally, when the sound returned to being more normal it was unfortunately still unclear.

Halfway through the movie, I saw some smoke and realized it was coming from the back. There were people smoking in the theater while watching the film. It made it difficult for us to enjoy the movie and the smoke made us feel sick. Also, smoking in a movie theater is dangerous, it may set the whole movie theater on fire. There were also mobile phones ringing while we were watching the movie. It was annoying and it was impossible to hear the movie’s dialogue. 

Next, I was shocked to see that some young children were watching the movie by themselves. It was a category II movie and no adult had accompanied them. What was worse was that they were so excited and they talked loudly during the entire movie. What I could not accept was that none of your staff members came to warn them. There was no sight of your staff in the cinema hall either!

If the above problems had not happened, I could have totally immersed myself in the movie, however I was totally disappointed. I demand a full refund of the movie ticket. I would rather not encounter such an experience again. I look forward to receiving your reply.

 Yours faithfully,

 Chris Wong

Lin Xin Yao(3C)


The Trouble with Social Media

Good afternoon, adjudicators, teachers and fellow schoolmates. Today, I’m debating for the motion “Social media makes teenagers less confident about their image’. I have three arguments to support my position.

Firstly, social media makes teenagers feel insecure about their body image. Social media is filled with photoshopped pictures which make people look better. Not surprisingly, teenagers spend a lot of time comparing themselves to the people in the pictures who promote unrealistic beauty standards. Teenagers can never meet the standards in reality and will easily be trapped in a vicious circle of editing photos and feeling inferior. It is crystal clear that teenagers lose confidence about their body image due to the pressure from social media.

Secondly, teenagers feel uneasy if they do not receive enough ‘likes’ related to their social media posts. Being too attached to social media, teenagers tend to link their self-worth to the number of ‘likes’ they get. They treat the number of likes not only as proof of their worth, but also as an achievement. The more ‘likes’ they get, the more confidence they will have. A study conducted by the British Psychological Society found that teenagers easily suffer from depression if they do not receive a large number of ‘likes’. Therefore, it is clearly seen that social media is the culprit for low self-esteem of teenagers.

Finally, negative comments made by netizens undoubtedly lower teenagers’ self-esteem. When teenagers post their selfies and photos, anonymous netizens or netizens using pseudonyms may make rude remarks about their body shapes and styles. Not only is criticism hurtful to recipients in the virtual world, it also causes real problems in reality. For instance, in 2014, a female Korean athlete committed suicide due to online bullying. There were loads of negative comments criticising her looks, leading to the tragedy. As teenagers are easily influenced by peers, they certainly lose their confidence and question their self-worth after reading those online comments, which may trigger serious mental health problems. There is no denying that social media has a detrimental impact on teenagers.

In conclusion, social media makes teenagers less confident about their image. The drawbacks definitely outweigh the benefits. Therefore, today’s motion must stand. Thank you.

Lau Yoyo(3D)

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