Aerial performer Jennifer Bricker was born without legs, but she never let it stop her.

    Wrapped in a loop of red silk hung from the ceiling Jennifer Bricker climbs and twists to the music. Her head hangs down and her strong arms let go as she balances on her back, high above the ground a move that's all the more daring because she has no legs.

    Jennifer was a few months old when she was adopted by Sharon and Gerald Bricker. She had big brown eyes, a bright smile, and huge amounts of energy. When a doctor advised her adoptive parents to carry her around in a kind of bucket, they refused.

    Jennifer soon learned to walk — and run — on her hands and bottom, and grew up fearlessly climbing trees and bouncing on the trampoline（蹦床） with her three older brothers. “My parents didn't treat me differently so I didn't grasp the concept that I was different. I knew I didn't have legs but that wasn't stopping me from doing the things I wanted to do.”

    At the age of three she was fitted with artificial legs, but she never really took to them — she moved more freely without.

    In 1996 the Olympic Games took place in Atlanta. Jennifer loved to watch the women's gymnastics team, and especially adored the 14-year-old Dominique Moceanu who competed for the US. When Moceanu and the women's team won gold, Jennifer decided she was going to be a gymnast, too. She took up power tumbling, which involves performing floor exercises down a runway. But Jennifer did not want any allowances to be made for her disability.

    At the age of 10 she took part in the Junior Olympics and by age 11 she was tumbling champion for the state of Illinois.

    Jennifer now travels the world as an inspirational speaker and acts as an aerial performer.

    At the beginning of the century there was a big farm called Hollywood Ranch. It was near Los Angeles in California. A few years later Hollywood was one of the famous places in the world. From the 1910s to the 1950s Hollywood was the film center of the world. Every family knew the names of its film stars—Charlie Chaplin，Greta Garbo，Bergman and hundreds more.

    The reason why people went to Hollywood to make films was the sun. At first people made films in New York on the east coast of the United States. But then they heard about Los Angeles where there are 350 days of sun every year. As they made all the films by sunlight，the west coast was a much better place to work. Also near Hollywood you can find mountains and sea and desert. They did not have to travel far to make any kind of film.

    When TV became popular，Hollywood started making films for television. Then in 1970s they discovered people still went to the cinema to see big expensive films. After twenty years they are still making films in Hollywood and people watch them all over the world.

    There are so many expressions in American English that sound pleasant but are not.

    “Face the music” is a good example. When someone says they have to face the music, it does not mean they are going to a musical performance or concert. To face the music means to accept the unpleasant results of an action.

    Imagine a friend asks you to take care of her beautiful red sports car. She gives you the keys and says, “Thanks so much for watching my car while I'm away. But please do not drive it. It is an extremely fast car.” But you do not listen. You want to show off and pretend the car is yours. So, you drive it around town. As bad luck would have it, you lose control of the car and drive it into a stop sign. The damage is serious. When your friend returns, you must tell her what you have done and “face the music”. That could mean losing her friendship or paying for repairs to her sports car or both. Whatever the music is, you must face it.

    There are other American expressions that mean the same as “face the music”.

    To “take your medicine” means to accept the results from something bad you have done. And if someone says, “You made your bed. Now lie in it.” He means you created a bad situation and now you will experience the results, or as we say in American spoken English, you must deal with it!

    “Pay the piper” also means the same as “face the music”. But, that expression has its own very interesting beginning. We will talk about that on another Words and Their Stories.

    I'm learning to drive in Switzerland. I think it will be a good idea to learn now because I have plenty of free time and am earning a little money to pay for lessons. I never learnt when I lived in the UK, so luckily driving on the "wrong" side isn't a problem.

    However, there are a lot of rules to remember. When you see a road to your right and there are no white lines on the ground, the cars to your right have the right to go before your car and you have to stop for them. In practice, lots of people forget this and cars either wait for each other while both drivers try to remember what to do, or beep (鸣喇叭) at each other if both try to go at the same time!

    When you drive round a roundabout, you should check all your mirrors. To remember how to do this, I often count them aloud—one, two, three—then a second glance at your blind spot when you're in the roundabout. One friend came driving with me and after about an hour asked why on earth I was counting. He had passed his test so long ago, he couldn't remember ever having to check three mirrors!

    Driving still seems scary to me so I drive quite slowly. I also don't know the countryside roads very well and don't know what's coming up round the comer or over the next hill. I drive slowly so I feel safe, but my driving instructor tells me to speed up or cars will bump into me from behind or try to overtake somewhere dangerous. So driving slowly is just as dangerous as driving fast!

    I'm not a very practical person so learning to drive has been a challenge. I don't have a lot of confidence and find it quite demotivating to do something that doesn't come naturally to me. To make driving more fun and interesting, I learn in Swiss German, so my instructor gives me instructions in Swiss. This way I've tricked myself into enjoying driving and hopefully will pass the test!

    Vaping can be just as damaging to your health as smoking. But the minute you kick the habit, you'll feel a difference.

    Vaping is the use of electronic cigarettes-e-cigarettes. Vaping became mainstream in the United States in the late 2000s. When e-cigarettes first hit the market, people believed they were a safer choice to tobacco cigarettes. We now know, however, that vaping, like smoking cigarettes can be quite damaging to your health-and equally addictive.

    Kids and teenagers are especially attracted to vaping, thanks to attractive flavors. Vape use in high school students rose by 900 percent between 2011 and 2015.

    Quitting vaping can be difficult, just like trying to stop smoking. There are some immediate, though often temporary, negative effects. The positive ones soon outpace the negative, however.

    In as little as 20 minutes, your heart rate returns to normal, your blood pressure drops, and your circulation starts to normalize. Your breathing may improve, too.

    Daily e-cigarette doubles a person's risk for a heart attack. If you quit, however, the risk begins to fall very quickly. Also, vaping, like cigarette smoking, can blunt your senses, reducing your ability to smell and taste. After just 48 hours without vaping, you may begin to notice your ability to taste and smell food has improved. Nicotine affects more than your brain: new research suggests nicotine can raise your blood sugar, too.

    Smokers often have a troublesome cough or make a breathless sound when they breathe that many refer to as a smokers cough. Smoking even e-cigarettes can badly harm your lung health and make fighting off infections difficult. Quitting, however, will help your lungs recover. After one month, your lung capacity improves.

    There will come a day when the bad habit of vaping won't have any lasting influence on your body and your health.