The main cause of death and disability in the US

    Stroke (中风) is the main cause of death and disability in the United States. Every 45 seconds, someone in America has a stroke. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} It is the nation's third leading cause of death, ranking behind diseases of the heart and all forms of cancer. The following is something more about stroke.

Definition and description of a stroke

    Stroke is a type of cardiovascular disease. It affects the arteries(动脉) leading to and within the brain. A stroke occurs when a blood vessel（血管） that carries oxygen and nutrients to the brain is either blocked by a clot or bursts. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} So stroke forms.

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    The American Stroke Association has identified several factors (因素) that increase the risk of stroke. The more risk factors a person has, the greater the chance that he or she will have a stroke. Some of these you can't control, such as increasing age, family health history, race, and previous stroke. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Factors resulting from lifestyle or environment can be improved with a healthcare provider's help.

Breakthroughs in treatment

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} In fact, about 600,000 people have strokes every year. For many years, there was no hope for those suffering a stroke. However, recent breakthroughs have led to new treatments. For the treatments to work, the person must get to a hospital immediately.

    “Image is everything.” An entire industry has been built upon the concept that image is everything, but an appealing image isn't enough when there's no substance behind it.

    First of all, one should consider how important image is in selling products and services. Advertising agencies have raised the art of creating an image to a state of near perfection. But if the product or service doesn't live up to it, customers will be very dissatisfied. The recent scandal (丑闻) about the Arthur Andersen accounting firm showed that behind that image, it had unfair business practices under the table. Despite the previous positive image, the firm is being accused of criminal actions. Although the image had been nearly perfect, the reality behind the image has led to its downfall.

    Similarly, personal consultants(顾问) can build up a very positive public image for politicians and movie stars in the view of the general commons. But once again, history is filled with examples of both that fell from grace (体面) like the story of the Hollywood actor giving in to the pressures of fame and fortune. With people, just as with products and services, image is certainly important, but without positive substance behind it, failure is close.

    To conclude, it's clear that an appealing image is extremely important to success, whether that image is related to selling a product or service or to the “selling” of a person. But image is only half of the equation(等式). What lies behind that image is every bit as important as the image itself — the person or product must live up to that image or there's little chance for long-term success.

    Taxi-booking app Uber agreed to sell its business in China to Didi Chuxing. The two firms had been fierce competitors, but Didi Chuxing had controlled the Chinese market with an 87% share.

    Uber China launched in 2014, but it had failed to make any profit for a long time. Cheng Wei, founder and chief executive of Didi Chuxing, said the two companies had learned a great deal from each other over the past two years in China. He added that the deal would set the mobile transportation industry on a healthier path of growth at a higher level. As part of the deal, Mr. Cheng would join the board of Uber, while Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick would also join Didi's board.

    Uber's China business would own its separate branding while US-based Uber Technologies would hold about 17.5% in the combined company. Didi Chuxing is backed by Chinese Internet giants Tencent and Alibaba.

    Uber had been struggling to break into the Chinese market despite having Chinese search engine Baidu as an investor. Last February, the company admitted it was losing more than $1 billion a year in China. “Funding their Chinese dreams was becoming too expensive for Uber,” Duncan Clark, chairman of Beijing-based consultancy BDA, told the BBC. Travis Kalanick said, “As a businessman, I've learned that being successful is about listening to your head as well as following your heart.”

    The fierce competition had led both companies to spend much more on their journeys. The combination is likely to see fewer such subsidies（补贴）. “One thing to watch carefully is how quickly consumers feel the impact as subsidies are withdrawn.” Mr. Clark added.

    The deal with Didi Chuxing came just days after China had agreed to provide a legal framework for taxi-ordering apps. Both Uber and Didi welcomed the decision. The new rules took effect last November and could, among other things, forbid such platforms to operate below cost.

    Animals can be reproduced by technology now; researchers can clone them. A clone is an exact copy of another animal or plant. Scientists have cloned a sheep which they have named Dolly. Researchers took genes from a ewe (母羊) and used them to create a copy (Dolly) of the ewe.

    Why are scientists doing this research? One reason is to get information about genes so they can improve our health. They also want to learn how better farm animals can be produced. Cloning is a controversial issue for people. Some people think it is good because this research can help us, but other people think cloning is unacceptable. Some people think it might be possible to save endangered animals by cloning them. Tigers, elephants, and other endangered animals might be saved in this way.

    In China, pandas are endangered because they are hunted and they are losing their habitat, so some Chinese scientists want to try to clone pandas to save them from extinction.

    I don't really like the idea of cloning animals, but I don't think I want panda to become extinct. If the best way to save them is to make cloned pandas, they must be cloned.

    I want to live with a lot of animals and nature. I don't want animals to die out, especially pandas. I think humans must think more about protecting animals and nature. Maybe cloning is the way to save all endangered animals.

    We now think that chocolate is sweet, but once it was bitter. We think of it as a candy, but once it was a medicine. Today, chocolate can be a hot drink, a frozen dessert, or just a snack. Sometimes it's an ingredient（构成部分）in the main course of a meal. Mexicans make a hot chocolate sauce called Mole and pour it over chicken. The Mexicans also eat chocolate with spices like chili peppers.

    Chocolate is a product of the tropical cacao tree. The beans taste so bitter that even the monkeys say "Ugh!" and run away. Workers must first dry and then roast the beans. This removes the bitter taste.

    The word "chocolate" comes from a Mayan word. The Mayas were an ancient people who once lived in Mexico. They valued the cacao tree. Some used the beans for money, while others crushed them to make a drink.

    When the Spaniards came to Mexico in the sixteenth century, they started drinking cacao, too. Because the drink was strong and bitter, they thought it was a medicine. No one had the idea of adding sugar. The Spaniards took some beans back to Europe and opened cafes. Wealthy people drank cacao and said it was good for the digestion.

    In the 1800s, the owner of a chocolate factory in England discovered that sugar removed the bitter taste of cacao. It quickly became a cheap and popular drink. Soon afterwards, a factory made the first solid block of sweetened chocolate. Later on, another factory mixed milk and chocolate together. People liked the taste of milk chocolate even better.

    Besides the chocolate candy bar, one of the most popular American snacks is the chocolate chip cookie. Favorite desserts are the chocolate cream pie and, of course, an ice cream sundae with hot fudge sauce.

An increase in a country's working-age population is a blessing. Lots of workers support relatively few children and retired people. So long as the labor market can absorb an increasing number of job-seekers, output per head will rise. That can boost savings and investment, leading to higher economic growth, more productivity gains and developmental speed-up. Yet for countries that fail to seize this opportunity, the results can be tough. 

Consider Thailand. It is rapidly aging. In 2021, the share of Thais aged 65 or over hit 14%, a figure that is often used to define an aged society Soon Thailand will, like Japan, South Korea and most Western countries, see a decreasing supply of workers and flagging productivity and growth without extraordinary measures. Yet unlike Japan and the rest Thailand is not a developed country. It has got old before it has got rich. 

This is a big barrier to Thailand's future development. To protect its aging citizens, many of whom are poor, Thailand's government will have to spend more on health care and pensions (养老金). This will make it harder to invest in productivity-boosting skills and infrastructure (基础设施). And where Thailand goes, many developing countries will follow.

One conclusion is that countries with a working-age burst need seeking more economic growth out of it. India may never have a better chance than the present. It is widely accepted that privatization and looser foreign-investment rules could raise its growth rate. 

Another conclusion is that developing countries need to start planning for old age earlier. They should reform their pension systems, including by raising retirement ages. They should encourage financial markets, providing options for long-term saving and health insurance. And they should try harder to increase female participation in the labor force. Getting more women into jobs would help deal with the fact that women live longer than men, but tend to have less savings and pensions, leaving them in difficult situations in old age.