Flipping Fantastic: How Good is your Recall?

Compare to the short stories in the last series such as,"The Pencil," Dalat', and " Of Bunga Telor and Bally Shoes", certainly 'Flipping Fantastic' lacks excitement. The story is very common-place and the contending issue, almost singular in nature, is analogous to  Hamlet's famous soliloquy, "To be or not to be,that is the question.". Here, the issue is, " To go to Chesterlea Grange or not?"

'The Pencil' has good character development of Zahid and Encik Jamal while in ' Dalat' the character of Umat towers over Galau who is the smarter one. " Of Bunga Telor and Bally Shoes" tells us of the foolhardy nature of Jamal and his unusual ways to raise a budget to get married. In ' 'Flipping Fantastic', we have none of these excitement and twists and turns. Yes, 'Flipping Fantastic' is very low-key, 'run of the mill ' and hardly contain exciting premises to provoke  us to read the story again and again, unlike 'Dalat".

The following are 10 Q&A. Let us see how we can answer them.

1. Who is the writer of the short story,"Flipping Fantastic"?
2.Who are the main characters here?
3. What do you think is the approximate age of the two main characters?
4. What is physically wrong with Tristan?
5.What does Tristan enjoys that James dislikes?
6. What games does James like to play?
7.Which secondary schools would the boys be going to after the summer holidays?
8. What is the main difference in the characters of the twins?
9. How does James describe his new school?
10, How does Tristan describes his new school?

So, off the cuff, these should be your answers as well.

1. Jane Langford wrote this short story.
2. The main characters are the twins, Tristan and James.
3. They should be about 12 years old going on to 13.
4. He is physically challenged.
5. Tristan enjoys play-acting while James abhors it.
6. He loves to play football.
7.Tristan will go to  a special residential school called Chesterlea Grange while James will go to a day school called Highfields
8. Tristan is an extrovert while James is an introvert.
9.He describes it as "brilliant!"
10. Tristan describes it excitingly as 'Flipping Fantastic!"

UK: Not Out of the Woods Yet

Bank of England Governor Mervyn King warns that failure to act now on sweeping banking reform could pave the way for an “even bigger” financial crisis in the future.

Giving his views on the future of banking, King stressed that his opposition to having firms that are deemed “too big to fail” is because of the potential cost to the taxpayer if they need to be bailed out.

“W can set out possible alternative models for the structure of banking, but not very much will happen,” King said. “It won’t actually prevent the next crisis – the next crisis will be even bigger.”

Policymakers around the world are trying to redesign the financial system to repair the damage done after the credit crisis and to reduce pockets of risk so that banks and the authorities are better equipped to deal with future shocks.

But concerns have surfaced that appetites for change could dwindle now that the worst of the crash appears to be over and economies are returning to growth.

King said devising plans for banks in trouble and imposing tougher liquidity and capital rules on the financial sector were needed but said structural reforms such as “firebreaks and firewalls” in the system were also necessary.

“The proposals for narrow banking seem to be irrefutable,” he said.

He said he is not in favour of splitting banks but wants to impose internationally-agreed restraints to make sure financial institutions hold more capital and don’t incentivise risky behaviour.

The Conservatives, tipped to win an election due by June, are in favour of some kind of separation within banks and also plan to put the central bank in charge of macro-prudential financial regulation.

TOO BIG TO FAIL

“One of the consequences now with the implicit subsidy of too important to fail is there is an advantage to being not so much large in terms of size but large in terms of scope,” King said.

“So you really want to have a big link to the payments system of retail deposits and a lot of other things because you know the government cannot afford to let you go under. We need to get rid of it.”

King said splitting retail banking to safely deal with consumer deposits and hiving off some of the riskier activities of investment banks would help build a stronger financial sector and mean that taxpayers were not underwriting everything.

 “Some of the more radical reform that has been proposed have an immense attraction because many of these judgements would be left to the market,” he said.

King would like to see banks that handle vital payments and retail deposits backed by cast-iron guarantees separated from the riskier parts of the industry which should operate without implicit state support in case of failure.

He said Britain could not sustain itself as a large centre for finance if that implicit subsidy remained.

Flipping Fantastic: Reading Comprehension

Let us look at this passage before we put in the questions with multiple choice answer posers.

Tristan is a bewildering boy.He's always been such a life-wire but for the past two weeks,he's been strangely quiet.James has been quiet too but that is not unusual for him. They both seem to have been depressed since te last day of term.I'm not quite sure why.It is the summer holidays after all.Perhaps it was a mistake to choose different secondary schools for them. They're very different children but they're still twins.It's hard for the rest of us to understand quite how they feel. I must ask them again if this is what they really want. I can't let them spend the rest of the summer holidays looking as if they've won a lottery,then lost the ticket down a drain! (Pg 29)

1. What does the expression,'live-wire' means with regards to Tristan?

A: Noisy and serious
B: Nervous and calm
C: Quiet and Depressed
D: Friendly and talkative

2.Tristan and James are depressed because they

A: had quarreled
B: could not be in the same play
C: they could not go to a summer camp
D: had to go to a different secondary school

3.Why do the twins have to go to different schools?

A: They are competitive
B: They have different needs
C: They asked to go to different schools
D: They do not like to be in the same school

4. The word,'lottery' probably refers to them being lucky to have found

A: places i n their own school
B: two different day schools
C: suitable secondary schools
D: inappropriate secondary schools

If you have read the book closely,all the answers are obvious.

======================================================================

The answers are:

1(D)
2(D)
3(B)
4(C)

So,did you got them all right?

Lucky you!

Flipping Fantastic: Tone, Mood,Language and Style

So how did you feel after reading,"Flipping Fantastic"? Happy? Devoid of any strong feelings?

On hind-sight,  it an average  light-hearted short story where the issues discuss are mainly about school life.
So we can say that  the tone is not too sombre nor too exciting for a start. That is the mood the author wants us to start with and to continue with  throughout the story. It became a little more when concerns rose about the twins going to different secondary schools.Conflict starts rearing its head when Tristan has half a mind of not going to Chesterlea Grange and to join James at Highfields instead. The way the characters express their feelings on the situation is interesting as all of them are enveloped in their own worlds with heavy-laden concerns,not communicating yet with one another, their inner thoughts.

As for the mood,we live alongside the boys and their mother, living from one anxious moment to another until the resolution of the issues.We sense the issues going on in their heads and our mood follows the ups and downs according to the development in the story.

As for the atmosphere, the setting is friendly as the family is tightly knitted and they support one another positively throughout the story.

Now, let us look at the language and style.

The whole story uses simple English structures which makes easy reading. As the story is being built up from the diary pages of three persons, the reader will need to tie up the story,the behaviour traits of the main players  as well as the concerns of each character as the story moves along.

The literary devices  used in this story includes mainly figurative language, imagery,irony and alliteration.

The figurative language includes

Similes- " Like a tyre that has burst,totally deflated"
Metaphors- "James is such a pest".
Personification-"Time could have stopped still".

As for imagery, we found it used in the following manner-" We're very much stuck together".

An example of alliteration:-"Flipping Fantastic!"

The use of irony is exhibited in such sentence as- ".... looking as if they have won the lottery,then lost the lottery down the drain".

Genting, Asia’s largest listed casino operator, reported October-December net profit of RM245.4 million against a loss of RM120.8 million a year earlier.

According to the company, the regional tourism market will continue to grow with new attractions, affordable air travel and rising affluence.

However,its UK casino operations will continue to be adversely affected by the weak economic conditions there, said Genting, whose unit Genting Malaysia is the world’s most profitable casino.

It made a net profit of RM1.04 billion for the full year, nearly meeting the average estimate of RM1.1 billion of 21 analysts, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine’s SmartEstimate, a consensus estimate that gives more weight to recent forecasts by top-rated analysts.

Genting’s US$4.5 billion resort on Singapore’s Sentosa island is part of the republic’s plan to attract 17 million visitors and triple annual tourism revenue to S$30 billion by 2015.

Genting, valued at US$7 billion, also has substantial interests in oil palm plantations, power generation and property development which it deems as non-core businesses for sale at the right price.

Eighteen out of 22 analysts tracked by Thomson Reuters  have either a “buy” or “strong buy” rating on Genting, with three calling it a “hold” and one rating it an “underperform”.

Shares of Genting are down about 14 per cent so far this year, lagging the 0.3 per cent gain in the broader market index.

I think the worst times for Genting could be over  as Genting Singapore starts ploughing back its capital expenditure and could pay handsome dividends from next year onwards.

Malaysia: Health Tourism from Singapore's Medisave

Gleneagles, a private hospital in KL  is planning to capitalise on the Singapore health tourism market by partnering with tour operators and low-cost flier,Firefly.

This has been made possible as the  Singapore government has authorised Singaporeans to use their Medisave savings to pay for medical treatment in 12 hospitals in Malaysia beginning March 2010.

 CEO Amir Firdaus Abdullah of Gleneagles said that the hospital has seen an increase of enquiries from Singapore and has received over 40 calls since the announcement was made earlier this month.

The hospital typically sees between 20 to 30 Singaporean patients each month. Amir added that Singaporeans will be able to save on their medical bills by coming to Malaysia.

“A heart by-pass costs USD9,000 (RM30,600) here but USD18,000 in Singapore,” he told  a media briefing at the partnership signing here today.

Gleneagles Hospital Kuala Lumpur is working with Firefly and Holiday Tours and Travel to offer seamless travel and medical services to Singaporeans seeking treatment here.

Firefly managing director Datuk Eddy Leong who was at the briefing said that it could even be arranged for the ambulance to drive up to the Firefly aircraft.

Amir assured that Singaporeans, who pay the same rates as Malaysians under the hospital’s single-tier pricing policy, would not drive up prices at the hospital.

“We do not see costs escalating other than the normal price increases that happen globally,” he said. “The Singaporean market will not be a contributing factor.”

He added that about 15 per cent of Gleneagles’ patient volume are foreigners, including Americans, Indonesians and Singaporeans, but declined to discuss targets for Medisave patients.

Gleaneagles, one of Kuala Lumpur’s premier private hospitals, was opened in 1996, and has 330 beds.
Medisave is the Singapore government mandated medical savings scheme. Every Singaporean is required by law to contribute to Medisave.

The Medisave fund now stands at SGD42.4 billion and the average Singaporean has SGD14,900 in their account.

So, it looks like Health Tourism is starting off on a healthy start in Malaysia.

So do buy some Hospital Group shares on the Bursa, won't you?