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短命沙發馬鈴薯
Shorter lives for couch potatoes?
english-online
Modern medicine and progress in public
health services have allowed people in the western world to live longer. While
an average American lived for only 47 years around the 1900s they extended
their lives to 68 in 1950 and almost 80 today.
However , some health experts warn that we are
not doing enough to stay healthy. More and more people in developed countries
have become couch potatoes. They eat too much and exercise too little. Some
experts even predict that today’s children may, in fact, live shorter than
their parents.
More and more children are getting diseases
that typically older people get – like heart illnesses and type 2 diabetes. Two
thirds of all adults are overweight as well.
Medical journals predict that obesity will
actually shorten life expectancy by two to three years in the upcoming decades.
Especially children are at risk. Obesity in children has tripled since 1970.
Besides this more and more money will have to be invested in health care
because an increasing number of people need treatment for heart problems and
diabetes.
On the other side people can live with
obesity for a long time and become old if they get the right treatment quickly.
Most of them take pills for high blood pressure or a higher cholesterol level.
But this can mean a life full of pills and constant doctor’s visits.
There are many doctors who see no problem
with being overweight as long as you exercise enough. And they may even be
healthier than thinner people.
Questions:
Dose watching TV continuously makes us
couch potatoes?
What are the risks of a sedentary
lifestyle?
What are the effects of a sedentary
lifestyle?
How to keep healthy?
How long do you spend on average watching
television?
Pros and cons of watching television?
What are the TV programs do you like most? Why?
What are the easy ways to exercise?
What are the benefits of exercise?
Is obesity really a big problem in Taiwan?
How can overweight and obesity be
prevented?
選美在中國
China
embraces beauty pageants By Saga McFarland, CNN
Maoist notions of puritan equality have
given way to eager contestants and booming television audiences. More parents
of contestants -- many of whom lived through the tumultuous, bourgeois-hating
Cultural Revolution -- are eagerly accompanying their daughters to pageants,
Wang said.
The shift in Chinese attitudes toward
pageants began in 1980s, which saw great enthusiasm for "allowing women to
be women," said Edwards. "Some people regarded the Maoist years as
years when 'women had to be men' so the liberalization period has seen a return
to a carnivalesque hyper-feminity in things like beauty pageants."
In 1985, a government-run newspaper
applauded the bikini as a "great challenge to the traditional concepts and
remnants of feudal ideology," after they made their Chinese debut amid
giggles and cat calls in a female body-building contest, Time Magazine
reported.
Edwards has noted a growing acceptance of
all things beauty since the 1980s. "The contemporary idea of womanhood
seems to be linked to the 'right to be beautiful and to beautify' in
China," she said.
Liu Chen, a 25-year-old musician from
Harbin in China's northern Heilongjiang province who describes herself as
"a girl full of talent and love for art," epitomizes this new
attitude. As a contestant in this year's Miss World pageant in November, she
said she is excited to represent China and make new friends from around the
world.
"I am very lucky to represent China
and show my country's history, love, charm and beauty," Liu told CNN.
However, she admitted asking her parents' permission before entering the
contest.
Growing audience and cash
The explosion of other pageant genres,
which often include talent segments, suggests that viewers, not just the nature
of pageants, are changing as well. Modeling competitions, such as Guangdong
based Southern Television's New Silk Road modeling contest, are becoming increasingly
popular.
"In the beginning, beauty pageants
were just modeling competitions, looking for beautiful girls. Now we also look
for talent; we are trying to change the pageants' positioning in China,"
Wang said.
China's pop idol talent competition "Super
Girl" commanded over 400 million viewers at its peak, before being shut
down by the State Administration of Radio.
Questions:
What do you think about beauty pageants?
Do you support beauty pageants?
Are beauty contests harmful to women?
Pros and Cons of a beauty pageant?
What do you think of the bikini in beauty pageants?
Should ban the bikini in the Miss World
beauty pageant?
How to Win a Beauty Pageant?
What do you think about plastic surgery and
beauty pageants?
What to do if were the miss world?
Why people like looking for beautiful
girls?
What do you think the China's pop idol talent
competition?
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以下為周六8/9文章 歡迎來討論
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鬼月禁忌
Hungry Ghost Festival Taboos
1. Avoid swimming during the 7th month. It is believed that those previously drowned evil ghost might cause you to drown in the swimming pool. Such ghost need to find victims in order for them to be go for rebirth.
2. Avoid moving into new homes and opening new businesses this month as it is considered inauspicious and bad luck on new ventures.
3. Avoid getting married during this month because couples will have bad ending. Some bad ghost may cast a bad spell on couples during their wedding.
4. Drive very carefully during this month to avoid accidents, as there may be many wandering spirits who died of accidents previously that are searching for next victims so that they could be reincarnated.
5. Avoid spitting and blowing your nose in the street or at any tree/plant.
6. Do not pick up anything including money found on the street and never bring it home.
7. Avoid getting emotional and crying in the middle of the night. A weak, sad and emotional mind gives ghosts the opportunity to possess you and harm you.
8. Do not whistle after the sun set. This will attract the attention of ghosts that may stick to you for a long time giving your a spate of long term bad luck.
Hotel Taboos:
1. Provide a respectful knock on the bedroom door before you enter for the first time.
2. Avoid entering the room right away. Whisper to yourself that you are renting the room to stay temporarily, as a form of asking permission. Let any spirit leave the bedroom first before you enter.
3. Place your pair of shoes or sandals facing the door. The shoes must be away from the bed. One side of the shoe points to the door and the other side point inwards.
4. Always keep the toilet's door closed with lights turned off when you go to sleep.
5. Try to avoid facing the mirror when you sleep. If the mirror is designed in this manner, try to cover it with a towel. (fengshuibestbuy)
Questions:
What do you think about hungry ghost festival?
What do you think about hungry ghost festival taboos?
Do you think ghosts exists?
Why do people believe ghosts exist?
What do you think about ghosts in Chinese culture?
What are some examples of superstitious beliefs?
Reasons why people believe in superstitions?
What are the most popular superstitions around the world?
What do you think Taiwanese traditional festivals?
Do you think Haven and hell are real?
In your imagination, what does hell look like? What does Haven look like?
戀愛化學變化
Crazy in love: What happens in your brain when you really do have chemistry By Victoria Fletcher
You may wonder why anyone in the throes of an illicit affair would risk their marriage, family and career for the sake of a what may seem like an irrational crush.
But doctors have begun to unravel the mystery of why love can make us giddy, irrational and even ridiculous.
Scanning technology allows neurologists to unearth incredible images of what happens in our brains when we fall in love.
Dumb love: When we are passionate about a person it makes parts of our brain shut down, including the ones controlling fear and judgement
They have mapped the chemical changes that occur and discovered the parts of the brain that activate – and more importantly, the parts that shut down – during the heady days of courtship.
And far from being blissful, they have discovered how it can make us nervous and unstable.
They hope it may also one day reveal why a few of us might overstep the mark when dealing with the object of our affections.
LOVE IS THE DRUG
Studies have shown brain chemical dopamine is at higher levels in those in love. Dopamine is key to our experiences of pleasure and pain, linked to desire, addiction, euphoria, and a surge may cause such acute feelings of reward that it makes love hard to give up.
Tests show that taking opioid drugs such as cocaine have a similar effect on dopamine as love.
A side effect of rising dopamine levels is a reduction in another chemical, serotonin, a key hormone in our moods and appetite.
Questions:
What are the signs you're falling in love?
What happens in your brain when you fall in love?
How to know if Mr. Right isn't really Mr. Right?
Where to find Mr. Right / miss. Right?
How to know if you’re in love?
Why do people become stupid when they fall in love?
Is it falling in love makes us do strange things?
Do you think the romantic movies make us 'unrealistic about relationships?
What love does to you: the physical effects of falling in love?
What are the side effects of falling in love?
Why romance makes you sick?
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