This week, we asked our readers, what is the worst surprise they’ve ever received? Here are our favourite answers
1 Nasty, not hilarious
It’s the surprise provided by teachers in chat rooms during weekends or holidays. Every student must have encountered some teacher giving homework in a “hilarious” way, saying “the assessment is a holiday surprise for you all!” Actually, it’s quite a nasty surprise to us.
Timophy Pit Hok-yau,16, King Ling College
2 No, thanks!
I once told all my friends how much I loved little animals and how badly I wanted a pet. And guess what I got for my birthday? No, not a cute kitten or puppy; it was a lizard! Who keeps lizards as pet? They can lose their tail and then regrow a new one. Ew! I found it so weird that I let my friend keep it.
Anushka Purohit, 16. Renaissance College
3 Sour ending
“Since it would be holidays soon, I would give you all a surprise,” the teacher said. Yay! We innocently thought that the teacher would give us some candy or other yummy stuff ... until she added: “Class prefects, please help me hand out the holiday homework. Enjoy your holiday!” That left me speechless, and I was like, “wow, thank you sooooooo much!”
Cotrina Fung, 15 , St Mary’s Canossian College
4 Shell-shocked
Surprise tests, for sure! Most surprises would make me scream in delight, but tests just make me sigh in self-pity. Besides, I don’t see the benefits of giving students a test when they’re too shell-shocked to do well anyway!
Karina Poon, 16, South Island School
5 Testing times
It happened quite recently, when our maths teacher had an early Easter surprise for us. And sure enough, it wasn’t great. A surprise test! Thanks a lot! *note the sarcasm*
Parul Methi, 12, King George V School
6 Virus wipeout
“I think some virus has invaded our laptop.” This call from my brother while I was on the MTR almost made me choke on my sandwich. It turned out that I had lost all of my files, including important school documents and hundreds of photos. It was so distressing that I could cry thinking of it now.
Vivian Lee, 16, Maryknoll Convent School
7 Out-of-the-box thinking
The worst surprise I ever had was at a party organised by my friends for my birthday. They said it would be a memorable event and sure it was! As I entered the room, I was doused with flour which shocked me and left me speechless. I thought the “surprise” was over, but no, there was more to come. Then they opened a box which I thought contained a birthday cake. There was no cake; the box was full of cockroaches and other creepy-crawlies. I was really angry. Can you think of a worse birthday surprise?
Eunice Yip, 15, Pooi To Middle School
8 Numbers game
Probably receiving a nicely wrapped present which contained several mathematics exercise books. The reason? I got five marks lower than the last test. Ugh.
Charlie Fan, 16, Pui Kiu College
9 Deadline woes
My Macbook often gives me a surprise when I am nearing a deadline. One day, when I was rushing to complete a video-editing assignment, a message suddenly popped up, telling me that the application had experienced a “fatal error”. I tried my best but I could not solve the problem, and needless to say, I missed the deadline. For me, surprises come at the worst possible time. Gosh!
Marilyn Ma 20, Chinese University of Hong Kong
10 New chapter in your life
I’m a bookaholic. I love reading and keeping the books afterwards. However, some books cost a fortune. That’s why I got really excited when my mum promised to buy me the whole Twilight saga for my 10th birthday. But when I unwrapped the present, I found A Brief Description of World History, which is actually thicker than the Bible. Can someone tell me what’s going on?
Abbie Leung,14, St Mary’s Canossian College
With the exam season fast approaching, we are sure many of you are up late doing some last-minute cramming. So for next week’s Top 10, tell us: What is the best cure for lack of sleep? Send your answer, along with your name, age and school, to [email protected] with “Top 10: Sleep” in the subject field. The best answers will appear in next week’s Top 10 page!