There is an English saying that “Laughter is the best medicine.” Until recently, few people took the saying seriously. Now however, doctors have begun to look into laughter and the effects it has on the human body. They have found that laughter can really improve people's health.

    Tests were carried out to study the effects of laughter on the body. People watched funny films while doctors checked their hearts, blood pressure, breathing and muscles. It was found that laughter has similar effects to physical exercise. It increases blood pressure, makes the heart beat quicker and makes people breathe deeper; it also works on several groups of muscles in the face, the stomach, and even the feet. If laughter exercises the body, it must be beneficial.

    Other tests have shown that laughter appears to be able to reduce the effects of pain on the body. In one experiment doctors produced pain in groups of students who listened to different radio programs. The group that tolerated（忍耐）the pain for the longest time was the group which listened to a funny program. The reason why laughter can reduce pain seems to be that it helps to produce a kind of chemical in the brain which diminishes both stress and pain.

    As a result of these discoveries, some doctors in the United States now hold laughter clinics, in which they help to improve their patients' condition by encouraging them to laugh. They have found that even if their patients do not really feel like laughing, making them smile is enough to produce beneficial effects similar to those caused by laughter.

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    The manager expects to meet and talk with successful applicants in Paris in June and July.

    The end of the school year is in sight — Christmas cards, candy canes and of course, end of year reports.

    While most parents welcome an assessment of their kids' performance, they do not expect their own input to be evaluated. But a school in the UK is changing that. As well as assessing their students, they are dishing out grades to mums and dads. Parents that are really involved in their kids' education are rewarded with an A, and parents that haven't done their bit get a disappointing D.

    The school, Greasley Beauvale Primary in Nottinghamshire, uses standard such as whether mums and dads have attended school events such as plays and parent teacher evenings to decide on the grade. The school's principal, Donna Chambers, said that the scheme had been well received.

    “There were some critics. In spite of it, between 15 per cent and 20 per cent of parents started out in the lower categories but now that has been reduced to just two per cent,” she explained.

    Chambers hopes that the scheme will help motivate parental involvement. “The system is important because you have got to get the parents on board from day one. That one hour initial conversation saying they could improve will make a difference to the rest of that child's academic life”, she said.

    But while the scheme may be well intentioned, it is likely to be connected with parent shaming. There are lots of reasons why some mums and dads might not be involved in school activities such as work commitments, looking after younger children or caring for elderly relatives.

    And of course, being involved in your kid's education doesn't begin and end at school. There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes from helping with homework to keeping uniforms freshly laundered. And what about all the parents who stayed up sewing special costumes at the last minute? Surely that earns a gold star instead of a grade!

    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.

    Driving a car is not just handling controls and judging speed and distance. It requires you to predict what other road users will do and get ready to react to something unexpected. When alcohol is consumed, it enters your bloodstream and acts as a depressant (抑制药),damaging eyesight, judgment and co­ordination(协调),slowing down reaction time and greatly increasing the risk of accidents. Even below the drink driving limit, driving will be affected.

    Alcohol may take a few minutes to be absorbed into the bloodstream and start action on the brain. Absorption rate is increased when drinking on an empty stomach or when consuming drinks mixed with fruit juice. To get rid of alcohol from the body is a very slow process and it is not possible to speed it up with any measures like taking a shower or having a cup of tea or coffee.

    The present Road Traffic Ordinance states clearly that the limit of alcohol concentration is： 50 milligrams of alcohol per 100 ml of blood； or 22 micrograms of alcohol per 100 ml of breath; or 67 milligrams of alcohol per 100 ml of urine (尿液)．

    Drivers who cause traffic accidents, or who commit a moving traffic offence or are being suspected of drink driving will be tested.

    Any driver found drinking beyond the limit will be charged. The driver declared guilty may be fined a maximum of HK $ 25000 and be sentenced to up to 3 years in prison and punished for 10 driving­offence points; or temporarily banned from driving.

    The same punishment applies to failing to provide specimens (样本)for breath, blood or urine tests without good excuse.

    Drink driving is a criminal offence. Be a responsible driver, think before you drink. For the safety of yourself and other road users, never drive after consuming alcohol.

    All Jalen Bailey wants is for his mom to be happy. So, the 8-year-old boy is using a hobby that brings him much joy to make enough money to buy her a house.

    Right now, they live in a small apartment in Fresno, California, because it's all they can afford, but Jalen is hoping to change that with his bakery. “I know Jalen wants me to have a bigger place, but I want the same for him,” Sharhonda Mahan, Jalen's mom, told TODAY. “He deserves a big kitchen to cook in and a backyard to run around in.”

    Jalen, who started baking at 5, opened Jalen's Bakery out of his kitchen on July 1 and has already raised $200. “I love baking because it's kind of like science,” Jalen said. “You get to put different baking materials into a bowl and make something new, which is what science is all about.”

    For now, he's delivering the baked goods locally around Fresno with the help from his mom — but he launched a GoFundMe, hoping to eventually ship nationwide. Jalen has always been a little entrepreneur(企业家), taking after his mom, a full-time nanny. In fact, he also has a photography business on the side.

    At 6, he started an annual back-to-school drive at a local homeless shelter and made bracelets to sell at school carnivals. He also took a business class in early June to learn how to start a lemonade stand, but decided to use those same skills to instead open a bakery.

    “Everyone in the family kept telling him how good he is at baking and suggested doing that instead of a lemonade stand,” Mahan said. “He agreed with them and the very next day, he was filling out an application to get his baking license.” Once he had his license, he attended his first business mixer. While networking with local bakers, he met one who offered to donate Jalen an oven, so he could bake even more cookies and banana bread.