Such chronic (慢性的) diseases as heart disease, stroke, cancer and lung disorders are the most leading causes of death in the world. Yet health experts say these conditions are often the most preventable.

    The World Health Organization (WHO) points out chronic diseases lead to about 17 million early deaths each year. The United Nations (UN) agency expects more than 380 million people to die of chronic diseases by 2015. About 80% of the deaths will happen in developing nations.

    Chronic diseases now cause two-thirds of all deaths in the Asia-Pacific area. In ten years it could be almost three-fourths. People are getting sick in their most economically productive years. In fact, chronic diseases are killing more middle-aged people in poorer countries than in richer ones. The WHO estimates (估计) that chronic diseases will cost China alone more than 500,000 million dollars in the next ten years. That estimate represents the costs of medical treatment and lost productivity. Russia and India are also expected to face huge economic losses.

    According to a WHO report, deaths from chronic diseases have increased largely as the result of economic gains in many countries. Until recently infectious and parasitic (寄生的) diseases have been the main killers in Asia and the Pacific but they are no longer the major cause of death in most countries.

As many as 80% of the deaths from chronic diseases could be prevented, health officials say. An important tool for governments is to limit the marketing of alcohol and tobacco to young people. Also, more programs are needed to urge healthy eating and more physical activity.

    The UN aims to reduce chronic-disease deaths by 2% each year by international action through 2015, that's to say, 36 million lives could be saved, including 25 million in Asia and the Pacific.

The iPhone, the iPad: each of Apple's products sounds cool and has become a fashion. Apple has cleverly taken advantage of the power of the letter “i” — and many other brands are following suit. The BBC's iPlayer — which allows Web users to watch TV programs on the Internet —used the title in 2015. A lovely bear — popular in the US and UK — that plays music and video is called “iTeddy”. A slimmed-down version(简装本) of London's Independent newspaper was started last week under the name “i”.

    In general, single-letter prefixes(前缀) have been popular since the 1990s, when terms like e-mail first came into use.

    Most “i” products are aimed at young people and considering the major readers of independent's “i”, it's no surprise that they've selected this fashionable name.

    But it's hard to see what's so special about the letter “i”. Why not use “a”, “b”, or “c” instead? According to Tony Thorne, head of the Language Center at King's College, London, “i” works because its meaning has become ambiguous. When Apple uses “i”, no one knows whether it means Internet, information, individual or interactive, Thorne told BBC Magazines. “Even when Apple created the iPod, it seems it didn't have one clear definition,” he says.

    “However, thanks to Apple, the term is now connected with portability (轻便) .”adds Thorne.

    ※Clearly the letter “i” also agrees with the idea that the Western World is centered on the individual. Each person believes they have their own needs, and we love personalized products for this reason.

    Along with “Google” and “Microblog”, readers of BBC Magazines voted “i” as one of the top 20 words that have come to define the last ten years.

    But as history shows, people grow tired of fashions. From the 1900s to 1990s, products with “2000” in their names became fashionable as the year was connected with all things advanced and modern. However, as we entered the new century, the fashion disappeared.

    Helen Monson has always been interested in helping her community. Her first volunteer experience was for the American Red Cross when she was in high school. When she was a school teacher, she also found time to volunteer.

After she retired, she started volunteering to help the old. When her father was older, he was not able to see as well as he used to, which made her sad because he had always enjoyed reading.

    She decided it would be fun to read to elderly people in her community. She also helped one woman write her stories. Ann was almost 100 years old, and Helen wrote down information about her life when she visited Ann. She put the information in a book and got it published. Ann was very excited to share her life story with her children and grandchildren.

    One day Helen read an article in the newspaper about refugees (难民) who needed to learn English. Now, she meets once a week with Sahra, a 38-year-old woman from Somalia. Sahra is learning reading and writing skills. Helen gave Sahra a camera and asked her to take pictures of her daily life. She developed the pictures, and then asked Sahra questions about them. In the end they wrote a book together and used the photos in the book. This helped Sahra learn many new words about her everyday life.

    Helen says, “The most rewarding part of volunteer work is becoming friends with the people I help. They enrich my life as well as I enrich theirs.”

    The world has lost one of its brightest stars. British physicist Stephen dies on March 14, at the age of 76.

    Hawking is probably the world's most famous scientists after Albert Einstein. He is an expert on black holes. He has devoted his whole life to digging into the beginning (and the end) of the universe. “My goal is simple,” Hawking once said. “It is to completely understand the universe, why it is as it is and why it is there at all.”

    Hawking's achievements are even greater if you think about his disability. When he was 21, Hawking caught a bad illness that slowly stopped him form moving or talking. For a period of time, he had no way to communicate except by blinking（眨眼）. Later he sat on a wheelchair with a computer by his side. To communicate, he moved two fingers to control the computer's mouse. He selected his words from the screen, which were then spoken by a voice synthesizer（音响合成器）.

    “I have had the disease for most of my life,” Hawking once said. “Yet it has not stopped me from being successful at my work.”

    Though Hawking was a disabled man, he made great achievements. He received many awards and prizes for his work during his lifetime. This included winning the Albert Einstein Award, which stands for the highest achievement in theoretical physics.

    Despite the fact that he's no longer with us, his legacy will surely live on. As Sajid Javid, a UK government minister, put it, “A brief history on Earth; an eternity in the stars.”

    In Britain. Boxing Day is usually celebrated on December 26th, which is the following day after Christmas Day. However, strictly speaking, Boxing Day is the first weekday after Christmas. Like Christmas Day, Boxing Day is a public holiday. This means it's a non-working day in the whole of Britain. When Boxing Day falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the following Monday is the public holiday.

    The exact origin(起源)of the holiday is unclear. One of the thoughts is that during the Middle Ages, when great sailing ships were setting off to discover new land, a Christmas Box was placed by a priest(神父)on each ship. Those sailors who wanted to ensure a safe return would drop money into the box. It was sealed up and kept on board until the ship came home safely. Then the box was handed over to the priest in exchange for the saying of a mass of thanks for the success of the sailing. The priest wouldn't open it to share the contents with the poor until Christmas.

    One more thought is about the "Alms Box" placed in every church on Christmas Day. Worshippers(做礼拜的人) put gifts for the poor into it. These boxes were always opened the day after Christmas. That is why that day became known as Boxing Day.

    Today, many businesses, organizations and families try to keep the traditional spirit of Boxing Day alive by donating(捐赠) their time, services and money to aid Food Banks, providing gifts for the poor, or helping families in need. Besides, spending time with family and shopping are popular Boxing Day activities now.

    Before uploading a photo of ourselves to social media, chances are that we'll use an app to smooth our skin, make our eyes look bigger, and lips fuller. With a couple of taps on our mobile phone, we can get a quick fix and present the "best" version of ourselves to the world. However, the problem is, when we simply edit our imperfections away, we're also changing the way we look at ourselves.

    Last month, researchers published the article Selfies – Living in the Era of Filtered(过滤的) Photographs. The article analyzed photo editing apps' bad influences on people's self-respect and their possibility to cause appearance anxieties. The researchers also warned that such apps make it difficult to tell the difference between reality and fantasy. "These apps allow one to change his or her appearance in minutes and follow an unrealistic standard of beauty," the article reads.

    In the past, people may have compared their looks to those of famous persons. But for today's young people, beauty standards are most likely set by what they see on social media. "From birth, they are born into an age of social platforms where their feelings of self-worth can be based purely on the number of likes and followers that they have, which is linked to how good they look." British cosmetic doctor Tijion Esho told The Independent. This is why many young people suffer an identity trouble when it comes to appearance.

    "Now you've got this daily comparison of your real self to this fake self that you present on social media." Renee Engeln, a professor of psychology, told the HuffPost website. Engeln further pointed out that when people spend too much time making such comparisons, they may become "beauty sick" and find it difficult to accept what they actually look like. "Because between you and the world is a mirror, it's a mirror that travels with you everywhere. You can't seem to put it down." she told The Washington Post. So when we look in a real mirror, we shouldn't think to ourselves, "Do I look as good as myself in the filtered photos?" Instead, we should think, "I feel good; I have my health."