In Britain, it's bottoms up from the week before Christmas till the last firework explodes in the sky announcing the new year. The last Friday before Christmas, popularly known as ‘Mad Friday', is one of the busiest periods for the country's pubs and clubs.

    But it's not just the bars that get busy. Ambulances and A&E departments around Britain get packed out too. Head injuries, cuts, falls…it's easy to end up hurting yourself or others when self-control disappear and your head is spinning due to alcohol revelers have been warned by the health authorities about the dangers of deadly drinking but drinking crazily seems to be part of the festivities for some.

    The charity Alcohol Concern is running a campaign of restriction by encouraging people to have a dry January.

    Jackie Ballard, the charity's Chief Executive, believes the campaign has been successful in recent years. She says, “More than two-thirds of people even six months later are drinking at reduced levels having had amonth off drink. But also a study has shown the impact it has on people's health reducing their blood pressure and blood sugar levels.”

    The study by the University of Sussex followed up nearly 900 participants in Alcohol Concern's Dry January campaign and found out that 72％ of them hadkept harmful drinking sessions down and 4％ were still not drinking.

    Moderation (适度) seems to bethe key to everything. The official recommendation for women is not to regularly drink more than 2 to 3 units of alcohol a day. The limit for men is 3to 4 units of alcohol — no more than a pint of 5.2％ ABV lager, beer or cider.

    It is interesting to see that the force of only 6 or 7 people pushing in the same direction can cause up to 1,000 pounds of force-enough to break brick walls. During a deadly stampede(逃奔), people can even die standing up. People die when pressure is put to their bodies in a front to back direction, causing them not to be able to breathe.

    If you are in a crowd, the first and most important thing is to make yourself familiar with your surroundings and find different exits. No matter where you are, make sure you always know how to get out.

    Make yourself aware of the type of the ground you are standing on, and know that in a crowd of moving people wet ground can cause you to fall.

    When in danger, a few seconds can make a difference, giving you the possibility of making use of your escaping route. Always stay closer to the escape route. If you find yourself in the middle of a moving crowd, do not fight against the pressure, do not stand still or sit down, because you can easily get trampled（踩踏）. Instead, move in the same direction of the crowd; make use of any space that may open up to move sideways to the crowd movement where the flow is weaker.

    Keep your hands up by your chest, like a boxer-it gives you movement and protects your chest. If you fall, get up quickly. If you can't get up because you are injured, get someone to pull you up. If you have kids, lift them up.

    If you fall and cannot get up, keep moving in the same direction of the crowd, or if that is not possible, then cover your head with your arms; do not lie on your stomach or back.

    Fun day

    To celebrate the Year of the Dog

    Organized by Lam Tin Youth Centre and Kwun Tong High school

    Date：2 February 2018

    Time：10 am – 5 pm

    Place：Kwn Tong Playground

    Fee: $ 20 (buy three get one free)

    Programmes：drama, lion dance, magic show and ballet performance

    Highlights: 1) enter the lucky draw to win a digital camera

    2) learn to make festival food

    Join us on the Fun day! Free Soft Drinks

    All are welcome!

    Note:

    Ticket are available at the General Office of Lam Tin Youth Centre.

    For those who would like to be a volunteer, please contact Miss Olivia Wong one week before the activity.

    Last night Mr. and Mrs. Rojas stayed home. It was cold and rainy and they didn't want to go out in the bad weather. Mrs. Rojas made some popcorn and ice tea. At 8:00, Mr. and Mrs. Rojas went into the living room, sat on the sofa and began the movie and ate and drank. At 8:15, Mr. and Mrs. Rojas realized they already watched the movie last year and they didn't want to watch it again.

    “Now what?” asked Mr. Rojas. “Let's play cards!” answered Mrs. Rojas. At 8:30 Mr. and Mrs. Rojas started to play cards. They were playing for about 10 minutes when Mr. Rojas looked out the window. The rain changed to snow and the trees were covered in beautiful white snow. “I'm happy we stayed home tonight. It looks beautiful outside but this weather is very dangerous to drive in.” said Mr. Rojas. “You're right,” said Mrs. Rojas, “but I'm bored. Let's play some music and dance.”

    Mr. Rojas was surprised. “Dance? But I really don't ….”

    “Oh come on!” Mrs. Rojas insisted. She put on a romantic CD and they both started to dance. They were dancing for about 1 minute when suddenly the music stopped and the lights went out.  Mrs. Rojas laughed. “We're just not very lucky tonight, are we?” she said. Mr. Rojas said, “Of course we're lucky! We are together!” He kissed her and continued to dance with her, in the dark and without music.

    Michael Jackson was on the road of performing when he was five years old. As is known to all, the road to fame and fortune is a long, hard one.

    Michael remembers those early years when he was young." My father was a machine operator," he explained, "and he worked at a steel plant. My mother worked at Sears, a big department store. But they were both musicians."

    Michael's father Joe Jackson realized his sons had a lot of talent, and he knew he could train them to become fine musicians. In those days there were plenty of music groups and some of them were very good. He knew if his sons were to stand out, they would have to be the best.

    Practice makes perfect. And the Jackson boys practised! Gradually the group took shape. Then word of this group began to get around. Thus Michael got a chance to do some solo(独唱) songs. In the following years, Michael was always on the top. One million records of his were sold in New Zealand, which has only a total population of three million!

    When Michael was eighteen, he entered another field of his career(生涯)—acting. "I plan to star in movies," he told his friends, "but of course, my first love is music."

    Michael wrote a lot of his own songs. "Songs came about in the strangest ways," he said, "I'll just wake up from sleeping and there is a whole song coming into my head. And then I put it down on the paper."

    Still, with all his success, Michael managed to keep his head calm. "I just do a different job from other people," he said, "but it doesn't make me think I'm better than other people."

    To be quite honest, his fans just love to hear and watch him!

    Music is not just a set of sounds and rhythms. Its influence on the brain is much deeper than any other human experience. Keep on reading to know all those amazing powers of music.

    A recent study suggests that preterm (早产的) babies appear to experience less pain and feed more when listening to music. Experts led by Dr. Manoj Kumar of the University of Alberta, Canada, found that music had a beneficial effect on reducing pain for preterm babies experiencing painful medical tests. It also appeared to benefit full-term babies during operations.

    Many people experiencing brain damage have speech and movement-related problems. Music can help recover from brain injuries. As a different and effective treatment, doctors often advise such patients to listen to good music to improve the parts of the brain responsible for these two functions. When people with neurological (神经的) disorders hear a musical beat, it helps them to regain a balanced walk.

    Though music cannot make deafness disappear, it really can stave off the loss of hearing. There was an experiment involving 163 people where 74 were musicians. Participants were asked to pass some listening tests. Musicians heard the sounds better than non-musicians, and this difference gets clearer with age. This means that a 70-year-old musician hears better than a 50-year-old non-musician, even in a noisy environment.

    Besides, music mends a broken heart. It is not about a thrown-away love, but about a heart attack. The matter is that music can help people recover from a heart attack or heart operation by reducing blood pressure, slowing down the heartbeat rate, and reducing anxiety. Listening to the quality music produces positive emotions, improves the movement of blood, and expands blood vessels, thus, promoting quick recovery of the whole cardiovascular (心血管的) system.