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AES: ESL 382: Computer Applications - Spring 1998
Students were given the phrase, "It was an unbelievable day at the AES. . ." Each team member wrote a portion of the story and forwarded the text to the next person on the team via Email.
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It was an unbelievable day at the AES. It was raining and very bad weather. I came to the school as usual, like any student, but I didn't see as many students as on a regular day. Then I saw some students who made a circle around something. I couldn't recognize it because it was really crowded there and some of the students were screaming. Then I ran to them and I walked through them until I saw that someone had been thrown on the ground and there was blood around him and he looked dead. At first, I thought that he was dead and all the other students thought that too. After a few minutes, the cops came fast and took the students away from the victim. They checked the victim to see if he was dead or still alive and the surprise was that he was still alive. Then they called for the emergency vehicles. After 5 minutes, the emergency vehicles came and carried the victim away. After that, the cops looked at us and one of the cops said this guy had been shot. Do you know who?. . . (Mubarak)
The police officer said again louder, "Anybody know who shot him ?" Suddenly, "I just heard a gun report 20 minutes ago, so I think the criminal is still near here," a man said in a trembling voice. "Why didn't you tell me that first?" the police officer said. The policeman hurriedly called for help from other police officers. Many patrol cars came to the school. Mubarak was scared even though he had been lifting weights. In fact, he hadn't recognized what was going on with the crowd of people, but he recollected that before he arrived at the crime scene, he had seen someone who was running away from in front of the Bon.....but he didn't know who he was. Nevertheless, he didn't tell the police officer because he wanted to become a superstar, not only at L&C, but also, in all the United States!!! He bravely thought he would catch the criminal himself. Unfortunately, the victim died from his injuries after he arrived in the hospital. The Portland police didn't have any clue about the crime.
Soon, the same type of crime happened again and again on rainy days at L&C...All students were scared to come to school on rainy days because there had been three killings. But, the Portland police couldn't get any trace of the crime. Since the first crime happened, Mubarak had been looking for the criminal, but also he could not find the guy whom he saw at the first crime. He should have asked for help from his AES friends, but he hadn't asked anybody. He had two reasons why he didn't ask for help: because he wanted to be a superstar, and he was afraid to tell about the man who had run away from the crime scene because, actually, the criminal saw Mubarak at that time, so Mubarak thought the criminal might be going to kill him if he told somebody. (Tomoya)
However, Mubarak decided to tell somebody anyway. When he thought about who he should tell, he remembered his ex-classmate who was a detective, Abdulaziz. As soon as he visited Abdulaziz's office, he told him everything that had happened at L&C, what he saw, and why he needed help now. After Abdulaziz understood everything, he gave the idea to Mubarak that he should disappear from Portland; therefore, Mubarak went somewhere where nobody knew, except Abdulaziz. During these days, the police officers thought Mubarak might be a criminal because he had disappeared, and then a search warrant came out. At the same time, Abdulaziz reasoned out what had happened with the murders and he found someone who could be the criminal.
Several days later, Abdulaziz called the police officers, students, and teachers at L&C and, of course, he called Mubarak. However, when the police officer saw Mubarak, they tried to catch him, and then Abdulaziz began to tell about this murder case. When his explanation was almost finished, one of the teachers tried to run away from the scene, and then Abdulaziz shouted,"You're the criminal!!" and all eyes turned on him. After that, the police officer caught the suspect and they left.
A few days later, L&C became peaceful like before and the criminal admitted everything to the police officer. The police officers were really appreciative to Abdulaziz and he got a letter of thanks from them, and.... Mubarak.... he lost his chance to became a superstar; therefore, he was disappointed, however, he also was thankful to Abdulaziz. (Aya)
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It was an unbelievable day at the AES. It all began on the first day for me in Portland and I didn't know anyone. All the people were strangers to me so I was thinking how I would deal with them and the worst thing was that I could not speak English. I was thinking what will I do and where will I go? When I came on that day I had a big test that was very long. While talking the test, I was thinking about what was going to happen after the test. I was thinking this is the future and a new step in my life. I must work hard to succeed in my life. Also when I saw the test, I thought that studying would be hard for me that I wouldn't be able to complete it. (Adnan).
Two days later, the test was returned. It was terrible. I got a "C-". After finishing the class, I asked my friends about the test score. To my surprise, they all got "A+". I was in shock! I didn't know what I should do. I was stumbling with shock. It was not long before the next class began. I couldn't believe it! We had to take a test again. I had no confidence any longer. I began to have a stomach ache, but once I went outside, I couldn't come back there. All I could do was to put up with the pain. Finally, I handed in a blank paper. (Yasuko)
Being extremely sick, I fell down on my way home. I knew nothing after my head hit an icy branch of a huge pine tree... A second before I opened my eyes, it seemed I had had such a long dream that I had almost forgotten everything but I remembered I got an " A+" on the test which I had handed in blank. So, the first sentence that I murmured out when I saw my classmate standing by my bed was, " Do you know anything about the latest test that I took?" She said, "You are awesome! You got A+ even when you were so sick!" I was shocked - It was unbelievable! I told her what I did and asked her to go to find out what had happened. I did not realize I was in a hospital until she left, leaving me alone. Feeling hungry, I began to eat an apple with big bites. Just when I had all the apple in my mouth, my classmate rushed in, breathing heavily with wide open eyes. "I saw Michael in another room here. His head was broken due to too much work on the computer and he has stopped thinking for over three days! But his wife said, 'Fortunately, he has invented an advanced program which can think and work for him. These days when he has to stay here, all the paper work and correcting has been done by computer, but not my Michael'..." All the pieces of apple in my mouth spurted out and covered my classmates' face! (Xiaofan)
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It was an unbelievable day at the AES. The weather was nice and everybody was there. On this day we went to a trip near the beach. We played volleyball, football, told jokes and ate lunch. (Fahad)
Then we went for a walk on the beach, and we enjoyed the weather. There was the blue sea, the cold sea air (that was good for breathing) and the beach, which was so clean. We made a contest for who could build the most beautiful sandcastle, so we made groups and started building and building. We spent about three hours, but no one had finished. After that, we went back to the school (that was my worst part of the day), but anyway everyone was happy and almost dead after what we had done at the beach. Well, not everybody was happy, because someone lost his. . . (Bader)
"Well, I. . It seems I . . I. . I lost my xxxxxxx." It was getting dark. No one had opened his mouth. Silence filled the air. The wind blew hard outside of the classroom. Fahad suddenly stood up and said, "I think I have to go back home to feed my snake." "NO!, you can't do that. We are going to go back to the beach to find his xxxxxxx . Let's go! I think Fahad, you should come along," Bader said. "Yes, all of us have to go together!!!" said Aya. The students in the class stood up all at once and rushed outside.
Everyone arrived at the beach. All the clouds had disappeared at that time. They looked for his xxxxxxx under the moonlight. Everyone was excited. Abdullah dug a hole in the sand. Adnan and Musashi were fishing. Noriko was singing a Japanese song. Mubarak and Xiaofan began beach volleyball. "I got it! Myung-sil said. It's his swimsuit isn't it?" She found it. "Almost! That's close. But it is not his xxxxxxx," said Yousef. So, they looked for his xxxxxxx again. Nasser began bungy jumping from the cliff. Yasuko and Tomoya played basketball.
After a while, somebody came near. "Everyone look! Come and look! I made it! Maybe I am the champion of the sandcastle building!" he cried out and appeared in front of the students. "Oh, Michael! Where were you? I thought, I thought, I had lost you!" The student who lost xxxxxxx rushed to the front near Michael. All classmates gathered around Michael. He smiled. Behind him, there was the pale moon shining on his beautiful sandcastle. (Kazumi)
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It was an unbelievable day in the AES. It all began when I was driving my car with my friend. It was a very dark and foggy night so that I wasn't able to see well. Suddenly, when I was talking and laughing with my friend, I crashed into a big huge tree, but we were lucky because we had our seat belt fastened. Then we got out to see the damage. I got back in the car and I was trying to start it, but it didn't start. I looked for my friend, but he wasn't there. I tried to look around for him when suddenly... (Nasser)
A midget ran by me. The midget ran on and I followed close behind. Then I was standing right under the Eiffel Tower! I followed the midget again. I was standing in front of the Louvre! It was a precious opportunity, so I decided to see the Mona Lisa. She was a mysterious woman. While I was looking at her picture, I lost the midget. It was getting dark while I was walking in the town. I was feeling lonely, so I wanted to go back home. Fortunately, I found a police station. When I was asking the police the way, a truck crashed into the police station. I lost consciousness. When I came to, I was in a dark forest, and there was my car that had gotten damaged, close by me.
So I hurried back home. I walked for a long time, for days. And then, I heard my name called from a higher place, and I got a heavy headache. Then and there, I fell down. I was in my house when I recovered consciousness. My family was calling my name. Something tells me that I had been sleeping for days. I was greatly relieved that it was all a dream. (Noriko)
Created by: krauss@lclark.edu
Updated: 2/17/98
