People have smoked cigarettes for a long time now. The tobacco which is used to make cigarettes was first grown in what is now part of the United States. Christopher Columbus, who discovered America, saw the Indians smoking. Soon the dried leaves were transported to Europe. In the late 1800s, the Turks made cigarettes popular.

    Cigarette smoke contains at least two harmful substances, tar and nicotine. Tar, which forms as the tobacco burns, damages the lungs and therefore affects breathing. Nicotine, which is found in the leaves, causes the heart to beat faster and increases the breathing rate. Nicotine in large can kill a person by stopping a person's breathing muscles. Smokers usually take in small amounts that the body can quickly break down.

    Nicotine can make new smokers feel dizzy(头晕) or sick to their stomachs. The heart rate for young smokers increases 2 to 3 beats per minute. Nicotine also lowers skin temperature and reduces blood flow in the legs and feet. It plays an important role in increasing smokers' risk of heart disease and stroke.

    Smoking cigarettes is dangerous. Cigarette smoking was the cause of lung cancer and several other deadly diseases.

Pride and Prejudice for the Modern Woman

    Let us imagine how Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen's most famous work, might be updated, 200 years on.

    Austen's popularity is rooted in her intelligence. But today she would certainly have had a very different life, as would her characters. Here's my own suggestion.

    It is a truth finally and universally acknowledged that a single woman with brains deserves to have equal opportunities to men, however disadvantaged she may feel by sexism.

    " My dear husband," said his hopeful wife one day, " have you heard that the local store, standing empty for so long, is taken over by a bright young businesswoman?"

    Her dull and indifferent (漠不关心的) husband replied that he had not. "But it is, it is," she replied excitedly. Mr Dull-Husband made no reply.

    "Don't you want to know her plans?" she cried with some impatience.

    "Well, clearly you think it matters to your silly little head. .. so I'd better listen. "

    "Well, my dear, the rumour (传言) is that she has already set up a string of successful businesses in northern England, though how a woman can know anything about that is beyond me. She will move in herself next month. " "What is her name?" "Bingley. "

    "Is she married or single?"

    "What a question! And none of your business. But her coming will be a fine thing for our five boys. " "How so? How can it possibly affect them? "

    "My dear love; those lazy boys need something to wake them up. There are bound to be jobs going. "

    " Is that her point in settling here? Surely as a woman she has simply taken a fancy to the place. "

    " Nonsense, my love, how little you've noticed the world has changed. She's got a first-rate degree and some sort of business qualification, I'm told. She surely needs one of our boys! Perhaps you might give her a call. "

    " Me? No. Perhaps you can take an interest. You still have your looks, after all. She may even offer you a job. " "Oh, that's not likely. These new chances belong to the younger generation. But now you mention it, I think I'll go along all the same. "

    And Mrs Bennet went along. That was 10 years ago. She is now managing director of a FTSE-listed company.

     It would remain the case, of course, that Mrs Bennet would be one of very few women on the company board, that her salary would be lower than her male colleagues, her bonus of a more "female" dimension and her lifespan (年限) among the city's business leaders shorter than theirs. Still, she'd no doubt have enjoyed Davos—and might even have hobnobbed (攀谈) with influential figures.

    City Life in Thailand is much like city life in the United States. People live in tall buildings or in houses close together. But outside the cities, life is different. People usually live on farms far apart from one another. They grow their own food or buy fresh food almost every day at the market. But the market is not in a building. It is a floating market located on a river.

    Lamai and her family live on a farm. They grow fruits and vegetables and sell them at the market each day. Long before the sun comes up, Lamai and her brother help their parents. They pick out fruits and vegetables and clean them. Then they load everything into a long boat.

    Their boat is ready by about 6:00 a.m. Lamai and her mother row to the closest floating market. On the way the water is still and peaceful. Lamai sees the bright sun beginning to shine.

    Soon Lamai hears laughing and yelling in the distance. Her mother rows the boat around a corner. Suddenly they are at the floating market. Hundreds of boats are gathered at a wide place in the river. Lamai's mother is selling bananas and ripe tomatoes today. For Lamai a trip to the market is more than just a chance to sell or buy something. It is a chance for her to talk to her friends.

    Today Lamai sees her friend Suki. He is helping his mother prepare meals in their boat. Lamai loves the smell of the fried bananas Suki's mother is making. Lamai's mother rows over to buy a late breakfast. As Lamai eats, she and Suki talk about their summer plans.

    At around 11:00 a.m. people begin to go home. She is sleepy from waking up so early. Her mother has sold most of what they brought to the market. The will leave the market with less food in their boat but with more money for Lamai's family.

    Open work spaces definitely have their benefits，but they come with the drawback of offering employees little to no control over visual distractions(干扰)．With so many people around and so much going on，some of us can easily get disturbed by this information overload and lose focus in what's really important．That's where the Focus Cap comes into play．

    “As we are still cavemen or mammals kept in an unnatural environment，I believe that only by reclaiming(收回)the normal，stress-free human state through simple tools and techniques can we finally release our actual creative potential and create our meaningful work for a brighter future，”says German designer Hannes Greblin，inventor of the Focus Cap．

    After looking at other products designed at minimizing visual distractions，Greblin decided that most of them were either too expensive or too uncomfortable to become mainstream，so he decided to go with something much simpler —a simple cap with a retractable visor(可伸缩的帽沿)．

    Greblin's Focus Cap is really straightforward．You just wear it like a regular cap'with the sides of the visor retracted，and just collapse the sides whenever you need to focus on what's ahead of you．Whether you're trying to focus on a task in an open work office．Trying to study at university，or practicing yoga in a park and trying to ignore stares from strangers，the Focus Cap can help．

    To be honest，this whole project sounds like a joke，but the Focus Cap does have its own website where people interested in this unusual accessory can actually sign up for updates on when it will go on sale．Greblin claims it will cost 30 euros($37)plus shipping．

    Jimmy is an automotive mechanic, but he lost his job a few months ago. He has good heart, but always feared applying for a new job.

    One day, he gathered up all his strength and decided to attend a job interview. His appointment was at 10 am and it was already 8:30. While waiting for a bus to the office where he was supposed to be interviewed, he saw an elderly man wildly kicking the tyre of his car. Obviously there was something wrong with the car. Jimmy immediately went up to lend him a hand. When Jimmy finished working on the car, the old man asked him how much he should pay for the service. Jimmy said there was no need to pay him: he just helped someone in need, and he had to rush for an interview. Then the old man said, “Well, I could take you to the office for your interview. It's the least I could do. Please. I insist.” Jimmy agreed.

    Upon arrival, Jimmy found a long line of applications waiting to be interviewed Jimmy still had some grease on him after the car repair, but he did not have much time to wash it off or have a change of shirt. One by one, the applicants left the interviewer's office with disappointed look on their face. Finally his name was called. The interviewer was sitting on a large chair facing the office window. Rocking the chair back and forth, he asked. “Do you really need to be interviewed?” Jimmy's heart sank. “With the way I look now, how could I possibly pass this interview?” he thought to himself.

    Then the interviewer turned the chair and to Jimmy's surprise, it was the old man he helped earlier in the morning. It turned out he was the General Manager of the company

    “Sorry I had to keep you waiting, but I was pretty sure I made the right decision to have you as part of our workforce before you even stepped into the office. I just know you'd be a trustworthy worker. “Congratulations!” Jimmy sat down and they shared a cup of well-deserved coffee as he landed himself a new job.

In 1999, John Smith, a high-school teacher decided it was time to retire. Together with his wife Helen, he set off on a journey around Australia. But when they returned, John found he missed the classroom, so he spent another eight years doing casual teaching.

Then he heard about a program known as Volunteers for Isolated Students' Education (VISE), which pairs up energetic people with educational experience, usually retired teachers, with children whose schooling is largely done remotely, because they live too far away from towns and cities to attend regular schools. John grew up in the country and as a kid in the bush, he always dreamed of running with circus, but he didn't even have much chance to see the circus in person. Therefore he was immediately interested in the program and got a travelling post as a teacher with Stardust Circus.

The lesson timetable was built around the kid's performance schedules. "The eight-year-old I tutored was an awesome gymnast who was part of the teeterboard(跷跷板) act," he explains. "A big guy would jump on the other side, he would swing up in the air, do a couple of twirls(旋转) and land on his uncle's shoulders, and his uncle was standing on the boy's father's shoulders!"

The circus still includes some animal acts, including lions, monkeys, horses, goats and pigs. John and his wife Helen found it extraordinary enough to sink into sleep to the sound of lions roaring, but one day the lion-trainer, Matt, gave him a very special privilege,inviting him in to meet four 13-month old lions in person. While it was understandably a little scary at first, for John it was a never-to-be-forgotten experience, which helped him realize his boyhood dream in ms 75th year.