It’s four more days to the O-Level maths papers, and the joss sticks sessions, phone calls, and the churning of customized notes, worksheets and 小李飞刀 questions continue unabated.
All these wholesome activities have, unfortunately, combined to take an unwholesome toll on Miss Loi’s well-being, as evident from the occasional misaligned fake eyelashes eyelash extensions and the sometimes uneven patches of foundation on her face.
What cannot be forgiven though, was that pair of bushy, Susan Boyle-lookalike eyebrows she chanced upon in the washroom mirror this evening, which meant that she couldn’t wait for her last joss sticks session to end so that she could visit her beautician to restore those eyebrows to their Cindy Crawford glory again.
Unfortunately, her regular beautician had long closed for the night and she was left scouring a nearby mall for a professional who could perform this emergency corrective procedure.
Imagine her joy when she found a shop that was still open, where she gleefully ran inside to be its last customer of the day (and consequently delaying its closing time by another 10 mins).
Browsing through the glowing catalogue of eyebrow celebs that included Angelina Jolie, Ayumi Hamasaki, Sonija Kwok, and countless other unknown models, Miss Loi decided that she wanted to be Athena Chu and proceeded to lean back, close her eyes and handed over her pair of eyebrows to the ‘eyebrow stylist’ for that value-for-money $10 Athena job.
And so the stylist proceeded to pluck … pluck … pluck … in earnest. So rhythmic and therapeutic was her pluck … pluck … plucking … that Miss Loi began to slowly fall asleep, but not before seeing a familiar figure floating out of the corner of her eye … and then …
BOOMZ!!!
Sorry Miss! Something hit me on the head and my contact lenses fell off! Now I can’t see!
Huh? Is there anyone who can take over?
Sorry Miss! The shop is closing and I’m the only one left. You need to guide me to finish up the job!
Miss Loi then realized, to her dismay, that there were no mirrors in the shop …
With her intimate self-knowledge, however, Miss Loi knows that her eyebrow is represented by the curve y = −x2 + 3x + 5, beginning where it cuts the y-axis at y = a and has its arch at x = b where the maximum value of y is c.
As the eyebrow stylist had never studied nor understood calculus before, help her determine the coordinates of the arch and the starting point of Miss Loi’s eyebrow via factorising y = −x2 + 3x + 5 using the completing the square method to find the values of a, b and c.
The stylist had this to add
If you can’t guide me then I’ll have to call for the only eyebrow plucker who’s available at this hour!
