Winner:

Reduce greenhouse gases

Our atmosphere consists of a mixture of gases including nitrogen, oxygen and water vapour. Small quantities of carbon dioxide, methane and a number of other trace gases too are present.

When sunlight passes through the atmosphere, warming the Earth's surface, the land and oceans release heat, or infrared radiation into the atmosphere, thus balancing the incoming energy. Water, vapour, carbon dioxide and some of the other trace gases can absorb a part of this radiation, allowing it in, to warm the lower atmosphere while the remainder is emitted to space. It is this absorption of heat, which keeps the surface of our planet warm enough to sustain us, that is called the 'green house' gases.

As the atmospheric gases that keep the Earth warm are known as greenhouse gases, it's evident that three quarter of the natural green house effect is due to water vapour. Apart from water vapour another significant greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide.

Today, because of human activity the levels of other greenhouse gases have increased greatly. The lower atmosphere is getting warmer changing the whether and climate around the globe drastically.

We should all join hands to protect our planet from this dangerous 'Greenhouse effect.' We can, and should stop this. We can't live without taking care of it. We must take precautions and reduce the release of harmful gases into the atmosphere that destroy the ozone layer.

M. Prabhasara Kanchani Leelarathne,

Grade 12G,WP/Taxila Central College,Horana.

Winner:

Tourist attractions in our country

Sri Lanka is famous throughout the world as a tourist paradise. There are many tourist attractions in this island. Some of them are the ancient ruins, picturesque waterfalls, the botanical gardens, wildlife sanctuaries and the golden sandy beaches. Thousands of tourists from around the world visit these places, almost daily.

The ancient ruins can be seen in cities such as Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Sigiriya, Yapahuwa and Panduwasnuwara. Sri Lanka has a heritage of over two thousand five hundred years and so, there are many ancient cities in the country. Most of the ancient cities were the capitals of our ancient kings.

Today these cities have become great tourist attractions because of the wonderful paintings, magnificent stupas and historical ruins of great buildings and monuments.The natural wonders such as the Dunhinda, Diyaluma, Bambarakanda and Bopath Ella waterfalls are some of the other attraction in Sri Lanka. Dunhinda is regarded as one of the most beautiful waterfalls, Bambarakanda is the highest waterfall in Sri Lanka.

Yala, Minneriya, Wilpattu, Kumana, Bundala, Wasgamuwa and Maduru Oya are some of the wildlife parks in Sri Lanka. Tourists like to watch wild animals wandering in their natural habitats and these places are great for that.

We have a long belt of sandy beaches too in the southern coast of Sri Lanka. Many tourists like to spend their holidays by the sea. They enjoy themselves swimming, diving and sailing in the sea, and basking on the beaches.The Botanical Gardens at Peradeniya and Haggala Gardens also attract many tourists.

Tourists never fail to visit these attractive waterfalls, the wildlife sanctuaries, Kandy and other historic cities, the Horton Plains and the golden beaches. Now that the North and East are liberated from the grip of LTTE terrorists, there'll be more attractions for tourists to see in these places.

As more and more tourist visit Sri Lanka to see these attractive places, we can be proud of the beauty of our country.

N.D. Angalika Dilmi,

Sailan International School,Negombo.

Winner:

My country, Sri Lanka

My country is a small island, which is located centrally in the massive and deep Indian Ocean. It takes the shape of a pearl in the world map. It is located five degrees above the equator. Therefore, it belongs to the Northern Hemisphere. Due to the close proximity to the equator, my country has a hot and wet climate and does not experience the four seasons. But there are two seasons, namely the rainy season and the dry season.My country is divided into three climatic zones; the wet zone, dry zone and the semi-arid zone. Always the lowest temperature in my country is reported from Nuwara Eliya.

If we take a step back in time and turn to ancient Sri Lanka, we'll see that there were many powerful kings in our country, who were very intelligent and ruled the country very bravely.

The kings got together with people and built massive tanks for the upliftment of agricultural activities in this land. Because of their intelligence, they were able to make Sri Lanka, the Granary of the East.

Buddhism was introduced to Sri Lanka as a result of the great friendship between King Devanampiyatissa and Emperor Ashoka of India. Even today, the main religion in our country is Buddhism. In addition to Buddhists there are Hindus, Muslims and Christians.Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa are two of the most important cities in Sri Lanka going by historical importance. There are many sacred places such as Thuparamaya, Abhayagiriya, the Samadhi Buddha statue and Vatadageya in these places. From among these sacred places, The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic in Kandy is famous the world over. The staple food in my country is rice, and the main crop cultivated here is paddy. The main export crops are tea, rubber and coconut.

In 1980, challenging the development of the country, terrorism arose. The LTTErs were the most dangerous terrorists in the world. Due to the war which continued for about 30 years, the country's economy collapsed. But, President Mahinda Rajapaksa was able to defeat terrorism, with the help of the armed forces and now the whole country is free of terrorism.He's the hero of the nation. I love my mother country. We are all children of one mother - Sri Lanka. I wish my country develops day by day.

K. Binuri Bathila de Silva,

Grade 7E,

Southlands College,Galle.

Winner:

Freedom, where are you?

To me freedom is the most beautiful word in the world. When I was just five days old, my parents had taken me to my grandparents home in the village where I grew up until I was ten years old.

Then, two years ago, I had to move to the city with my parents. Now we live in a small house without even a garden.

When I lived in the village there was plenty of space and I was very free. I used to run about in the paddy fields. I ran after butterflies, but was not able to catch a single one because they flew very fast. The calves used to jump and run whenever they saw me. I used to take a small stick and run behind them for fun. The birds came to eat the fruits that I kept for them on the mango trees. My grandma took me to the temple, almost every evening. As there were no crowds, we were able to worship freely.There were two big mango trees in our garden and I loved to climb them. There was also a swing tied to a big branch of one of the trees. I used to enjoy myself on the swing. Sometimes, I even fell asleep on the swing.These are only sweet memories, how. When will I go back to them? Oh! freedom where are you now? Please come back to me. I feel cramped up in this concrete jungle.

Sanduni Nisansala Wijerathne,

Grade 7 (English Medium),

Sacred Heart Convent,Galle.

Winner:

Life in the future

Hundred years from now, every country in the world would be hundred times more developed than what it is today. Life in the future would be so different from now in many ways, with so much new technology, machinery and robots. Life would be made more comfortable and easier due to all the advanced technology.

There would be so many changes in our basic needs that even food would be more delicious and produced in the form of food pills. People would eat these pills to survive. There would be very few trees and crops, and so natural fruits and vegetables we are used to seeing today would be very scare.There would also be major changes to the houses we live in too. There would be huge, tall towers like structures and houses all over the towns that would be completely air-conditioned.Without going to work nobody earns a living today but in the future, people would be relaxing in their homes as robots would be programmed to do all the work in offices. Without going to work, people would still be able to earn a lot of money by getting robots to earn for them. There would be no schools or teachers. Education would be done using only computers programmed to teach and correct answer scripts.

Travelling from one place to another too is not easy these days especially in public transport. There's heavy traffic on the roads but in the future it would be very easy with new technology.People would be flying freely in the air, like birds. Travelling to space would be relaxing in, that almost everybody would have been to space, like we go to other countries today.I hope the world would be a wonderful place to live in after hundred years. I will not be alive but I would love to be living at that time just to know what changes have been made. Now, I can only dream about it.

Fathima Shanani,

Grade 7J,Ilma International Girls' School.