The word advertising refers to any kind of public announcement that brings products and services to the attention of people. Throughout history, advertising has been an effective way to promote(促进)the trading and selling of goods. In the Middle Ages, merchants employed "town criers" to read public messages aloud to promote their goods. When printing was invented in the fifteenth century, pages of advertisements(ads)could be printed easily and were either hung in public places or put in books.

    By the end of the seventeenth century, when newspapers were beginning to be read by more people, printed materials became an important way to promote products and services. The London Gazette was the first newspaper to set aside a place just for advertising. This was so successful that by the end of the century several companies started businesses for the purpose of making newspaper ads for merchants.

    Advertising spread quickly throughout the eighteenth century. Ad writers were starting to pay more attention to the design of the ad text. Everything, from clothes to drinks, was promoted with clever methods such as repetition of the firm's name or product, words organized in eyecatching patterns, the use of pretty pictures and expressions easy to remember.

    Near the end of the nineteenth century, companies that were devoted to the production of ads came to be known as "advertising agencies(广告商)．"The agencies developed new ways to get people to think of themselves as members of a group. Throughout the twentieth century, advertising agencies promoted consumerism(消费主义)as a way of life, spreading the belief that people could be happy only if they bought the "right" products.

    Doctors in hospital emergency rooms often see accidental poisonings. A frightened parent arrives with a child who swallowed a cleaning liquid. Or perhaps the harmful substance is a medicine. Or it might be a chemical product meant to kill insects. These are common causes of accidental poisoning.

    In cases like this, seek medical help as soon as possible. Save the container of whatever caused the poisoning. And look on the container for information about anything that stops the effects of the poison. Save anything expelled from the mouth of the victim. That way, doctors can examine it.

    Millions of people know a way to save a person who is choking on something trapped in the throat. The method is commonly known as the Heimlich Maneuver or abdominal thrusts(腹部按压), which you can do by getting directly behind a sitting or standing person. Put your arms around the victim's waist. Close one hand to form a ball. Place it over the upper part of the stomach, below the ribs. Place the other hand on top. Then push forcefully inward and upward. Repeat the abdominal thrusts until the object is expelled from the mouth. For someone who is pregnant or very fat, place your hands a little higher than with normal abdominal thrusts.

    Red Cross experts say taking these steps can save many lives. But they also warn that abdominal thrusts are not for people who have almost drowned. They say use of the method could delay other ways to re-start breathing in the victim. Abdominal thrusts should be used only in cases where a near-drowning victim is choking on an object.

    To learn more about first aid, ask a hospital or organization like a Red Cross or Red Crescent Society for information. There may be training classes offered in your area.

    Years ago, I lived in a building in a large city. The next building was only a few feet away from mine. There was a woman who lived there, whom I had never met, yet I could see her seated by her window each afternoon, sewing or reading.

    After several months had gone by, I began to notice that her window was dirty. Everything was unclear through the dirty window. I would say to myself, “I wonder why that woman doesn't wash her window. It really looks terrible.”

    One bright morning I decided to clean my flat, including washing the window on the inside.Late in the afternoon when I finished the cleaning, I sat down by the window with a cup of coffee for a rest. What a surprise! Across the way, the woman sitting by her window was clearly visible. Her window was clean!

    Then it dawned on me. I had been criticizing her dirty window, but all the time I was watching hers through my own dirty window.That was quite an important lesson for me. How often had I looked at and criticized others through the dirty window of my heart, through my own shortcomings?

    Since then, whenever I wanted to judge someone, I asked myself first, “Am I looking at him through my own dirty window?” I try to clean the window of my own world so that I may see the world about me more clearly.

    It may appear strange to hear that crops are making headlines.But this is no ordinary produce—these fruits and vegetables have been grown in simulated（模拟的）Martian and lunar soils!

    Though the possibility of growing crops in outer space only gained widespread interest after Matt Damon grew potatoes in the movie "The Martian",scientists have been testing the idea for many years.Fresh produce will after all be the key to setting up space colonies（殖民地）.

    Among the pioneers in this effort is a team led by Wieger Wamelink,a scientist at Netherland's Wageningen University.In 2013,they planted fourteen varieties of plants in simulated Martian and lunar soils.Though the "Mars" plants did not bear any produce,they grew better than the "lunar" plants,most of which died shortly after being planted.Lack of vapor in the soil,according to the scientists,might have accounted for the failure.

    The second experiment began in late 2015.The researchers selected the same crops,while this time they used larger containers and added grass to them.In March 2016,their efforts were rewarded with a variety of produce including the vegetable that kept "The Martian" alive: potatoes.

    However,the researchers were still not sure if the produce was safe to eat.That's because the Martian and lunar soils contain heavy metals like lead and arsenic,which do not affect plants but are poisonous to humans.

    After months of testing,earlier this week,the team finally confirmed that the produce was safe for human consumption.Some of the crops even contained lower levels of heavy metals than plants grown in the "ordinary" earth soil.

    To celebrate the success,the scientists held a dinner party that centered ground the crops.While there is no word on how the food tasted,it sure looks delicious.

    Since his early childhood, G. A. Minton has always been a faithful fan of science fiction and horror. Whenever a scary movie was playing at the local theatre, he was there in attendance with his friends, loudly screaming in terror.

    In his everyday life, Minton likes playing the game of golf most, having lettered on his high school golf team. In addition to writing, he also enjoys reading, traveling, fishing, swimming, working out, listening to hard rock music, and watching great movies－especially those about horror, science fiction, mystery and comedy.

    Strangely enough, it was only after Minton was knocked down by a drunk driver and suffered a closed-head injury that he developed a new found passion for writing. After the car accident, he suffered from both memory loss and problems communicating with others, which frustrated him to no end. He had to go to see his doctor on a regular basis and for weeks he had to take medicine used by patients who are suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Luckily, his brain slowly began to mend itself.

    At the end of the healing process, something was very different. He noticed that he had developed a strong urge to write down a story that had formed in his mind. That's how his first novel Trisomy XXI was born. He penned（写作）it in only three months. He began with chapter one and wrote in a freestyle manner—almost in a stream of consciousness. The narrative flowed freely from his vivid imagination, creating a thrilling tale of terror that is formed from an ordered sequence of events.

    One could think that the damaged neurons（神经元）had rearranged themselves into a different pattern, and thus improving the creative elements in his brain. Besides, stranger things have happened! He has recently completed his second novel. Currently, his brain is busy at work, seriously processing the text for another -story of the terror-one that will both entertain and horrify its unsuspecting reader!

Cara Jumper loves the giant saltwater pond on her grandparents Swansea, South Carolina, property(房产). One January afternoon, her grandfather Coy Jumper piled ten-year-old Cara and her sister, Claire, six, and Emma, five, into his Pontiac Sunfire and took them down to the pond. He and the girls walked happily through the pines, checking traps. No luck—they were empty.

    As the sun disappeared gradually toward the horizon, the group turned back to head home. But as Coy walked along the bank, he was suddenly unable to put one foot in front of the other. Then Cara saw Coy walk unsteadily and fall backward into the pond's deep water.

    When her grandfather didn't surface immediately, Cara jumped in. With one hand, Cara grabbed the bank. With the other, she reached for her grandfather, making contact in the dark water.

    Coy had suffered a stroke(中风) the year before. Now Cara wondered if he'd had one again. Just 80 pounds to her grandfather's 230, she held his head and pulled his face out of the water. That woke him, but he was still dead weight. She managed to move Coy towards the three-foot bank and pulled him up onto solid ground.

    The winter sun had almost disappeared, and they were all trembling. Cara knew she'd have to get Coy to the car, a quarter mile away. She helped him to his feet. Coy slowly moved forward.

    Sixty feet from the car, Coy fell. From there, he crawled, dragging himself under a gate, to the car. His granddaughters helped him into the passenger's side, and Cara got into the driver's seat.

"I used to sit on my dad's lap and drive," she says now. Coy, too, she says, had let the fifth grader drive through the fields around the house. Still, she felt nervous, but she pushed on the gas and steered(驾驶) them the three miles home. "I was trying to get there fast, but I didn't want to get us hurt," Cara says. When she pulled the Sunfire into the garage, her grandmother, Esca was there to meet them.

Coy spent six days in the hospital recovering from a stroke. Says Esca, "If Cara hadn't helped, she might not have a grandpa anymore."