Free Web NovelChapter 52: Chapter 51: He’s Number One in His Grade!
Round one is over.
Jiangzhou Experimental Middle School and Yongyang Middle School both scored 40 points, and with the base score of 100, their scores increased to 140.
Zhengyang No.1 High School scored 30 points, with a total score of 130.
Zhengyang No.13 Middle School only got 20 points, and with the base score, the total score was 120 points, ranking last.
The gap of ten or twenty points is not significant, so the mentality of the No.13 Middle School team was not affected.
Round two is subjective questions.
Subjective questions are not presented in a multiple-choice format; instead, a discursive question is given to each team to discuss and analyze. Finally, one team member is randomly chosen to answer the question.
The judges score the answers based on the question’s difficulty and the reference answer.
Each judge has 8 points to allocate, and the best combined score is rounded to the nearest ten, with a maximum of 30 points.
If the question is challenging, even if only part of the answer is correct, it is still possible to get full marks.
Each team answers two questions.
The first question for the No.13 Middle School competition team was quite difficult.
[Please give reasons to explain why children living in Africa face greater risks of illness and death than children in other countries.]
After the question appeared on the big screen, one minute of discussion time was given, followed by 40 seconds to answer.
The team members immediately started discussing—
"Disease, it must be related to medical standards."
"Africa is poor, very poor!"
"Africa has wars! I heard that primitive tribes are always fighting. I saw a news article last time about a tribe with only women, who had to kidnap men to reproduce..."
The others looked at He Ronghua, the meaning in their eyes was clear, "Why do you only care about this kind of news?"
He Ronghua gave an awkward smile.
After a thorough discussion, Zhao Yi summarized, "So, it’s about war, poverty, and low medical standards. Whoever stands up to answer, just explain these three points in detail. We don’t need to get full marks, I guess 20 points is also fine?"
Everyone nodded in agreement.
"Time’s up!"
Upon the host’s announcement, the big screen displayed the number: three.
Sun Liang stood up with a start, somewhat nervous. He still spoke up, "Africa is very poor. Poverty leads to a series of problems; also, Africa is very chaotic, constantly at war, and warfare causes the risk of death..."
Although some phrases were not standard, expressing the meaning clearly was enough.
Next, the judges scored the answer.
This question’s difficulty was not too high, but it was challenging to give a complete summary. The four judges gave scores of four and five points, which added up to eighteen points.
Rounded up, the score was 20 points!
The No.13 Middle School competition team didn’t cheer, but the smiles on their faces showed that they were satisfied with the score.
In the audience seats,
Zhao Hongjuan, the leader of the many parents, was also satisfied. "I told you Sun Liang is a smart kid. Look, he spoke very well!"
Jiangzhou Experimental Middle School, Yongyang Middle School, and Zhengyang No.1 High School also answered a question in turn.
Jiangzhou Experimental Middle School scored the highest, receiving a full score of 30 points. Both Yongyang Middle School and Zhengyang No.1 High School scored only 20 points.
The gap wasn’t widened, which is barely acceptable.
The No.13 Middle School competition team faced their second question.
[The Great Depression, which originated in the United States in 1929-1933 and later affected the entire capitalist world, including capitalist countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Japan.
Please list the fundamental causes of the 1929-1933 "Great Depression" in American history.]
Lin Xiaoqing, Sun Liang, and others were silent.
Zhao Yi carefully examined the question and analyzed, "Let’s break the topic from the perspective of the capitalist system!"
"The capitalist system, the contradictions between production and consumption, the contradictions between capitalists and workers, and the bubble economy of securities. We can discuss these aspects."
The others nodded in agreement.
Although it was a question on history, foreign history textbooks rarely analyze the economy, and the No.13 Middle School competition team members were all from science classes. They hadn’t encountered this topic before.
This time, the number chosen was four: He Ronghua.
He Ronghua was just as nervous when he answered the required question earlier, so there was still a risk in choosing him.
The others were somewhat worried.
This time, He Ronghua was still very nervous. He looked around after standing up, but his opening expression was quite good, "It was the problem of the capitalist system, the contradictions between production and consumption, and also... also... "
Then, he stopped talking.
He Ronghua’s face was dripping with sweat from anxiety, and he opened his mouth but couldn’t say anything.
The host hurriedly went over to comfort him, "Don’t be nervous! Take your time."
"Just talk about what you guys discussed, what you think and how you think..."
But it was no use.
He Ronghua looked at the host and thought about how many people were watching him on site and even more on television. His mind became completely blank.
The others were extremely frustrated but couldn’t speak up to remind him. Their gazes towards He Ronghua all read ’you’re so disappointing.’
Zhao Yi covered his face with his hand.
He suddenly thought of when he had just travelled back in time and played DOTA at the internet cafe with Chen Zhou and the others.
Both scenarios were the same!
No matter how hard he tried, it was just impossible to carry these guys.
In the end, He Ronghua still couldn’t say anything and was grumbled at by several people when he sat down.
"What’s wrong with you?"
"Zhao Yi explained everything so clearly, yet you only said one thing..."
"If you’re this nervous, why even participate in the competition!"
Zhao Yi also turned his head, wanting to complain, but when he saw He Ronghua shedding tears, he couldn’t bring himself to say anything.
But tears were useless too!
Lin Xiaoqing’s competitive nature couldn’t stand having such a teammate. She immediately turned to Teacher Wang and said, "Teacher Wang, let’s switch people! Get Sun Jiali to come! He Ronghua isn’t good enough!"
Wang Ping nodded.
Although they needed to consider the student’s feelings, it was competition time, and He Ronghua was too nervous, dragging the team down. Mental work could be done afterward.
Team one made a change: He Ronghua went out, and Sun Jiali took his place.
From the back row, the audience watched.
He Dabao stared at He Ronghua, who had just left the field, feeling worried but more disappointed.
Zhao Zhenxi comforted, "Old He, it’s okay. Your kid is the top of the grade. It’s not a big deal if he doesn’t do well in the competition."
"That’s right, he’s the top of the grade!"
Zhao Hongjuan emphasized, "I’ve always wanted Xiaoqing to be number one, but she just can’t beat He Ronghua. Your son is really outstanding!"
The emphasis in her following words was completely opposite in meaning.
Even Sun Li’s mother turned around and said, "Top of the grade, this kid is great at studying!"
He Dabao felt so ashamed that he wanted to burrow into the ground.
In the past, he always thought his child was much better than others and felt proud among the parents. Now, the title "top of the grade" had become ironic.
...
The subjective round ended.
Jiangzhou Experimental Middle School got 20 points for the second subjective question, accumulating a total score of 190 points.
Yongyang Middle School came next, with a total score of 180 points. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
Zhengyang No.1 High School ranked third, with a score of 170 points. frёewebnoѵēl.com
Zhengyang No.13 Middle School ranked last, with only 40 points accumulated in the two rounds, making a total score of 140, 30 points less than the third place Zhengyang No.1 High School.
There was a two-minute break, and the audience enthusiastically discussed the situation.
"That Zhengyang No.13 Middle School is definitely going to be last."
"The one who just answered the question was so nervous that he couldn’t say anything. They should have let other students try. No matter how good their skills are, they at least need to have good psychological quality!"
"I heard that the school made it to the finals because of the student named Zhao Yi, the number two. He answered all the questions correctly in the qualifiers."
"That’s amazing?"
"Competitions are about the team. It’s useless if he is the only one who is good."
In the players’ area:
Sun Li was still complaining about He Ronghua, "We should have just made him an alternate. During the qualifiers, his scores weren’t even as high as the ones we guessed, and now..."
Sun Liang also added, "If he just said a few things, we would have gotten at least ten points. We could have at least scored 150 points..."
Lin Xiaoqing’s small face was full of defiance and unwillingness.
Sun Jiali, who had just entered the field, appeared calm and didn’t need to worry about anything.
Zhao Yi shook his head and interrupted, "Enough, enough, stop complaining. It’s already like this. Let’s just try our best to answer the remaining questions. We still have a chance."
"The next questions are risk and quick-answer questions. Just leave it to me!"
