Recap: Oscar’s Best Picture Nominees
By Charlie Beauregard
Chieftain Staff
With the Oscars just a
week away, the Chieftain
thought it would be a good
idea to catch you all up on the
nominations for Best Picture,
the biggest award of the year.
The following is a short summary of each nominee to prepare you for this year’s Oscars,
set for Feb. 22.
American Sniper: A mustsee movie about the most
lethal sniper in U.S. history.
It is quite emotionally draining but, as an American, it is a
must see and a strong candidate for the Oscar. (Starring
Bradley Cooper)
Birdman: The tale of a
washed-up movie star who
attempts to rekindle his career
as a director on Broadway.
(Starring Michael Keaton and
Edward Norton)
Boyhood: Struggling
through the divorce of his
so. (Starring Ralph Fiennes)
parents, a boy named Mason
The Imitation Game: In the
accepts his
midst of World
challenges
War II, a group
and learns
of mathematito navigate
cians work
the world
vigorously to
by using the
crack a Gerlessons he
man war code.
was taught
The leader
in his
of the group,
childhood.
Alan Turing,
(Starring Elfaces his own
lar Coltrane
personal chaland Patricia
lenges that
Arquette)
could impact
The
whether or not
Grand
they succeed
Budapest
on their misHotel: The
sion. (Starring
story of
Benedict Cuma young
berbatch and
man who
Keira Knightmanages
ley)
the eloSelma: The
quent Alpine hotel and the
remarkable story of the fight for
struggles he faces in doing
equal rights led by Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. This movie
follows the freedom marches
taking place in Alabama,
from Selma to Montgomery.
(Starring David Oyelowo
and Oprah Winfrey)
The Theory of Everything: When Stephen
Hawking is diagnosed with
progressive motor neuron
disease while in graduate
school, he and his future
wife are challenged to overcome the disease through
their love. (Starring Eddie
Redmayne and Felicity
Jones)
Whiplash: This is the
story of a young music student who wants to become
a great jazz drummer. An
accomplished teacher discovers his skill and becomes
determined to train him
through humiliation and
fear. (Starring J.K. Simmons
and Miles Teller)
Midterms: Before or After Break?
Making a case for moving first semester exams up
By Evan Oesterle
Chieftain Staff
As we move into the second semester of the year, the
midterms that we, the student
body, took just a month ago
are not the first things on our
mind. But there is a significant
question that was brought up
during those weeks that I will
attempt to answer:
Should Brother Rice, like
many schools, have midterms
before Christmas break?
There are two sides to this
argument. First I will explain
some possible reasons why
we have them after break.
Obviously, there are benefits
to having midterms when we
do. Otherwise, we would have
them before.
The benefits of having
exams after break are:
•Evens out the semesters
by having that first week after
break as part of Semester 1.
•Keeps students focused
during break by forcing them
to study (more on this below).
•Gives teachers time to
write their exams.
•Allows us to start the
school year in late August.
These are rationales I
learned by speaking with
B ROTHE R R I C E H I G H S C HO O L C H I E F TA I N
teachers, plus a few students
who think they understand
the school’s thinking.
Here are some reasons
why many students and teachers believe we should have
finals before break:
•Most people do not
study very much over break.
They tend to forget more than
they retain, making it harder
to study after break.
•It is not a big deal to
have the second semester be a
couple weeks longer. Teachers
still cover the same amount of
material. In addition, the AP
exam dates wouldn’t change.
PAGE 10
•Teachers would have
all of break to work on final
grades.
•We are a Catholic school,
finals before break would
make the break a time of
prayer and reflection, rather
than having the stress of finals
two weeks after break.
I am not saying I am right
and the school is wrong, but
I do hope that this article will
find its way to administration
in the school. We hope that all
of you take this article seriously and possibly consider
moving up mid-terms next
year.
F E B R U A R Y 2015