2 . It is well known that smoking is harmful to health. It is unfortunate that despite some individuals who choose not to smoke, they remain to be victims of various diseases caused by cigarette smoking.

Cigarette smoke contains thousands of dangerous chemicals that are unhealthy for both smokers and non-smokers. Secondhand smoke refers to the smoke from the burning end of a cigarette and the smoke breathed by smokers. More than 126 million Americans are regularly exposed to secondhand smoke at home, at work, and in enclosed public spaces.

The Deadly Effects

Secondhand smoke can cause heart disease and lung cancer in non-smoking adults. Breathing secondhand smoke for even a short time increases risk for those diseases.

Children and infants are especially attacked by the poisons in secondhand smoke. Almost 3 million children in the United States under the age of six breathe secondhand smoke at home at least four days per week.

Secondhand smoke is a known cause of the sudden infant death syndrome, breathing problems, ear infections, and asthma attacks in infants and children.

Secondhand smoke in the home environment can slow the lung growth of exposed children. Older children whose parents smoke get bronchitis and pneumonia more often than the children of non-smokers. Wheezing (气喘) and coughing are also more common in children who breathe secondhand smoke.

Protecting Yourself and Others

The only way to fully protect yourself and loved ones from the dangerous chemicals in secondhand smoke is through 100 percent smoke-free environments. Opening a window; sitting in a separate area; or using ventilation (通风), air conditioning, or a fan cannot get rid of secondhand smoke exposure. If you are a smoker, the single best way to protect your family is to quit smoking.

Nowadays in real life, many people have all kinds of bad habits, but getting rid of them takes a bit more effort. Whether they’re “traditional (like biting your nails, snacking on junk food, gossiping, or twirling your hair) or more hi-tech (like texting), bad habits all have one thing in common: They’re hard to break. You can do it, though.

So if you’re ready, gather your willpower, follow these steps, and wave goodbye to that bad habit forever!

Step 1     1    

Make a note every time you engage in your habit. Write down the time and where you are, as well as how you’re feeling. Are you bored, angry, or sad? The more you understand the reason behind your habit, the more control you’ll have over it.

Step 2 Pay attention to when your bad habit pops up.

Do you see any patterns in your journal? Do you always bite your nails before a test? Are you more likely to eat junk food, like chips or candy, when you’re doing your homework? If you notice a pattern of your habit,     2     For example, if you bite your nails when you’re stressed, try to find other ways to calm yourself, like taking slow, deep breaths.

Step 3 Replace your bad habit with a good.

Instead of biting your nails or twirling your hair, keep your fingers busy drawing or knitting. If gossip is your problem, challenge yourself to say nice things about people. Each time you substitute your new activity for your old one,     3    

Step 4 Stay focused.

Write down a promise to yourself: “I will stop biting my nails” or “I will stop texting so much”. Make a list of the days of the week, and place a gold star next to each day that you don’t engage in your habit. If you can’t get through a whole day at first,     4     Before you know it, you’ll have a whole page of gold stars!

Step 5 Keep at it.

Maybe you’ve heard the expression “Old habits die hard”? Well, it’s true! It usually takes three weeks to a month to break a bad habit. So if you mess up one day, don’t give up!     5     Eventually you’ll have more successes than failures.

Remember, if you put your mind to it, you can do anything—even break that bad, bad habit!

When Gloria Estefan started primary school, she could not read, write nor speak English. She felt lost, unhappy and completely frightened. However, someone changed her life—her English teacher, Mrs Collins. Her family had left Cuba in 1959 when she was only a year old in the hope of finding a better life in America. Initially they moved to Miami where the family settled in a set of apartments with other Cuban women and children who had immigrated.

The women were close-knit and supportive. While she felt safe, she was also isolated. They all spoke Spanish, and she rarely heard English. On her very first day in school, which she was looking forward to, she was completely shocked. She came home and told her mother that she had learnt her first English word “stupid”. It was the nickname a boy had given her.

In every way possible, she was set apart from her classmates. She was the only panic and non-white student. She also found it difficult to grasp the English language as it was her second language. The culture, her school friends and the food they ate were different from hers. As such, she was set apart from her classmates.

One person made that year bearable for her, Mrs Collins. She was young and African American, so she understood how Gloria felt as she was the only non-white student in class. Mrs Collins never doubted that Gloria could catch up with the other students in time.

Still, the teasing continued. The boy who called her stupid would not stop laughing at her for her accent. He was a good student and the proud holder of the class’s reading award. It was an honour given periodically to a student, based on excellence in schoolwork, participation and homework. Gloria wanted that long-waited award.

Mrs Collins encouraged her to compete for the reading award.

The award ceremony was coming up.

8 . Who is a genius? This question has greatly interested humankind for centuries.

Let’s state clearly: Einstein was a genius. His face is almost the international symbol for genius. But we want to go beyond one man and explore the nature of genius itself. Why is it that some people are so much more intelligent or creative than the rest of us? And who are they?

In the sciences and arts, those praised as geniuses were most often white men, of European origin. Perhaps this is not a surprise. It’s said that history is written by the victors, and those victors set the standards for admission to the genius club. When contributions were made by geniuses outside the club—women, or people of a different color or belief—they were unacknowledged and rejected by others.

A study recently published by Science found that as young as age six, girls are less likely than boys to say that members of their gender(性别)are “really, really smart.” Even worse, the study found that girls act on that belief: Around age six they start to avoid activities said to be for children who are “really, really smart.” Can our planet afford to have any great thinkers become discouraged and give up? It doesn’t take a genius to know the answer: absolutely not.

Here’s the good news. In a wired world with constant global communication, we’re all positioned to see flashes of genius wherever they appear. And the more we look, the more we will see that social factors(因素)like gender, race, and class do not determine the appearance of genius. As a writer says, future geniuses come from those with “intelligence, creativity, perseverance(毅力), and simple good fortune, who are able to change the world.”

9 . When almost everyone has a mobile phone, why are more than half of Australian homes still paying for a landline (座机)?

These days you’d be hard pressed to find anyone in Australia over the age of 15 who doesn’t own a mobile phone. In fact plenty of younger kids have one in their pocket. Practically everyone can make and receive calls anywhere, anytime.

Still, 55 percent of Australians have a landline phone at home and only just over a quarter (29%) rely only on their smartphones according to a survey (调查). Of those Australians who still have a landline, a third concede that it’s not really necessary and they’re keeping it as a security blanket — 19 percent say they never use it while a further 13 percent keep it in case of emergencies. I think my home falls into that category.

More than half of Australian homes are still choosing to stick with their home phone. Age is naturally a factor (因素)— only 58 percent of Generation Ys still use landlines now and then, compared to 84 percent of Baby Boomers who’ve perhaps had the same home number for 50 years. Age isn’t the only factor; I’d say it’s also to do with the makeup of your household.

Generation Xers with young families, like my wife and I, can still find it convenient to have a home phone rather than providing a mobile phone for every family member. That said, to be honest the only people who ever ring our home phone are our Baby Boomers parents, to the point where we play a game and guess who is calling before we pick up the phone (using Caller ID would take the fun out of it).

How attached are you to your landline? How long until they go the way of gas street lamps and morning milk deliveries?

10 . Four Great Persons

Born in Austria in 1756, Mozart was the son of a successful musician . He wrote his first piece of published music at five. Within the year, he began playing for the public, which included a tour of Europe where people admired the young boy’s talent. By the time he was a teenager, Mozart had written several operas. He wrote over 600 pieces of music in his lifetime.

Shirley Temple received her first acting chance at the age of three and starred in Carolina, her first film, at six. She quickly caught attention and by 1940, she had starred in 43 films, including Bright Eyes for which she won a special award for “Outstanding Personality”. As an adult, Temple became a US diplomat（外交官）for the United Nations.

South African Nkosi Johnson was born HIV-positive（携带艾滋病毒）. His story caught the media’s attention when his local public school refused to admit him because of his condition. Soon he traveled the world, telling his story wherever he could,encouraging other patients to speak out. Besides,he founded Nokie’s Haven,a safe place for HIV-positive mothers and their children.In 2005,he was award the International Children’s Peace Prize.

Alexandra Scott had cancer before she celebrated her first birthday.At the age of four, she decided to raise money for other children going through the same thing.So she set up a lemonade stand（摊位）,which inspired others to start lemonade stands, too.They raised over$1 million before Scott died of cancer.Her family carries on her legacy(遗产) through Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation,which has raised over $150 million.