MJC ZENITH May 2014

ZENITH May 2014 General Paper @ Meridian JC Page 2 of 38 ZENITH 2014 ZENITH’s first issue for 2014 brings you an exciting spread of the old and new! Look out for a collection of students’ essays, one of our favourite staple sections. With the upcoming mid-year exams, are you still uncertain of how to deal with certain Paper 1 keywords? Then don’t miss our ever-handy skills section! Watch out too for the Abstract section this issue, which features Mathematics! Congratulations to the J3s on their outstanding results, some of whose essays are featured here! In the meantime, all the best for your upcoming mid-year exams! You are most welcome to send feedback and suggestions in enhancing future issues of ZENITH. Editorial Team ___________________ Mrs Janice Lok Mr Conrad Lee Miss Hafizah Amid Miss Nur Liyana Ms Farhana Hajiah Najimudin Mr Yeoh Keat Wei

ZENITH May 2014 General Paper @ Meridian JC Page 3 of 38 …in ZENITH Essay Selection /box3 ‘A picture is always more powerful than mere words.’ What is your view? (GCE06Q2) /box3 ‘Contemporary music has no artistic value.’ Is this a fair comment? (GCE08Q10) /box3 ‘The tourist does not see the country the inhabitants know.’ How far is this true of Singapore? (GCE05Q8) /box3 ‘Science is unreliable, being based as much on theory as on fact.’ Is this a fair comment? (GCE11Q12) /box3 The grievances of women are a thing of the past.’ To what extent do you agree? (SRJCJ2PE13Q12) /box3 To what extent does social media pose a challenge for governments? (MJCJ2PE13Q1) /box3 Do you agree that efforts to regulate population size are necessary and effective? (MJCJ2PE13Q3) /box3 To what extent is a small population advantageous to a country? (MJCJ2MBT14Q3) /box3 Is a world without conflict a realistic aim? (MJCJ2MBT14Q1) /box3 ‘History is unreliable, being based as much on opinion as on fact.’ Do you agree? (MJCJ2MBT14Q6) Brush Up! Secret of the Ages – Paper 1 Evaluative Keywords 4 5 8 10 12 14 17 20 22 25 28 Abstract Mathematics Just in Library@Meridian Feature Global Education Seminar Series – Sally Silverstone 32 36 37

ZENITH May 2014 General Paper @ Meridian JC Page 4 of 38 ZENITH Essay Selection Editor’s advice Editor’s advice Editor’s advice Editor’s advice to students: to students: to students: to students: While you may find the examples and points in these essays useful in answering other questions, please be judicious in using such information in a manner that is relevant to the POC of the question you are answering. 'A picture is always more powerful than mere words.' What is your view? (GCE06Q2) picture is worth a thousand words' is an oft-bandied maxim which depicts the power images hold to convey messages, ideas and opinions to people. Since the dawn of mankind, pictures have been used to communicate, a classic example being the Palaeolithic cave paintings our prehistoric ancestors used to create. With the advent of modern technology, pictures today take a multitude of different forms. The creation of new methods of capturing a moment in time on canvas has become even more complex and intricate and the invention of cameras has paved the way for an entirely new form of pictures in the form of photographs. With such technological advances in the ability of pictures to purposefully deliver content and convey thoughts, it does seem like a picture can be more powerful than the spoken or written word. However, this is not always the case as words are also undeniably an important form of communication that is ubiquitous throughout the entire world. A picture can be more powerful than words in a sense that the former is more effective at stirring emotions within people, invoking thought and subsequently provoking action. Pictures have the power to convey messages with great clarity where sometimes words fail to do so. Although there are over half a million words, some things are simply ineffable with sufficient impact to stir an audience’s emotions. For example, in their fight to increase humanitarian aid to impoverished countries, activists often use pictures of malnourished children because such pictures or photographs are able to convey the feelings of hunger, pain and suffering these children experience to the audience at a glance. Words on the other hand may not be as evocative as it is difficult to convey emotions with enough depth to fully move people to action. Thus, I feel that a picture can indeed be more powerful than mere words at times as it delivers thoughts and ideas with great clarity and depth, and in doing so, has a greater influence on people than words. Another reason as to pictures’ power over words lies in their ability to be understood and internalised by a greater number of people, regardless of their origin or the language they speak. No thanks to the evolution of languages, there are more than six thousand languages in the world today, each with its own vocabulary of thousands of words and complex grammar rules governing the way it is spoken or written. This makes communication between people of different linguistic backgrounds highly difficult with words, unlike pictures which have a universal ability to be understood by anyone all over the world regardless of what language they may speak. For example, when travelling to a foreign country, everyone will be able to differentiate a male and female toilet if such direction was conveyed through pictorial signs with the classic blue male and pink female symbols. However, the written words for male and female may not be so effortlessly deciphered if they were written in a language one is not familiar with. This shows that pictures are able to reach out to a wider audience all over the world despite disparities in language. Hence, in this regard, pictures are indeed more powerful than words in their accessibility to any audience. Lastly, from a different perspective, pictures are indeed more relevant to us than mere words because of the simple fact that the human brain thinks in the form of pictures. We as humans inherently perceive the world around us through pictures and not words. The fact that we ‘A

ZENITH May 2014 General Paper @ Meridian JC Page 5 of 38 struggle to search for the right word to express a thought and how pre-verbal infants are capable of thought shows that thought processes are not carried out through words. Even though information may be fed to us in the form of words from an intellectual standpoint, these words are eventually translated into pictures by the mind. Everyone thinks in pictures and words function more like a second language to our brain. Humans will therefore be better able to connect with pictures or images on a more intuitive level because of such a phenomenon. Thus, pictures would seem to be more powerful than words as our human cognitive processes are more accustomed to visual thinking rather than through words. Although pictures are more stimulating to the human mind, some detractors argue that, the spoken word is a more powerful tool of communication than pictures. The main reason for this can be exemplified by various speeches given by prominent orators such as Barack Obama or Martin Luther King, who were able to win the favour of their people through the influence of only their words. Another example critics may cite is the emotion that courses