How to take care of health?

I am sure that health is a very impor­tant thing for all people. If you have good health you are in a good mood, I think it is necessary to take care of health.

I know a very useful proverb: "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."

First of all one must get up early, do­ing morning exercises. Usually I wash myself in the morning and in the evening with cold or warm water. I clean my teeth twice a day.

Everyone has one's rules about how to be in good health. To spend a lot of time in the open air is a very important fact for everybody. It is useful to go for a walk before going to bed. I think that we have to keep our flats clean. Every day I sweej

up the room.

It is necessary to take care of our food eating high fibre food. We must eat fruit and vegetables. A good way to live well is dieting.

I believe that we have to eat low fat food and visit a swimming-pool in the evening.

Paying attention to health we have to go in for sports. It means that we must run and jump, play football and volley­ball. In short we must be in some move­ment.

There are some facts which have influ­ence on our health. First of all it is obesi­ty and physical inactivity. We must not eat a lot, we can't eat much sugar and plenty of sweets.

Drinking much alcohol is not useful for our health. It is a terrible fact when we eat at night, don't follow a diet, use high-calorie foods and don't move a lot.

Smoking is not useful for our health too. If a person smokes a lot he (she) will be ill. To smoke is to live at the risk of one's life.

I suppose that it is necessary to go to bed till 11 o'clock and get up at 7 o'clock.

I am sure that our health is connected with our attack of nerves. I think that we must not be nervous.

First aid

I = Interviewer C = Dr Clarke

I Dr Clarke, when an accident happens the people present are much more likely to be people of the general public and not members of the medical profession. Now, how good are we? I mean would you say that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing? If we're not sure what to do, is it actually best not to do anything at all?

C Well, they're obviously interesting and important questions. Yes, first aid is terribly important and you can save lives if the right action is taken. I'd say that uhm ninety per cent of first aid is common sense, and only ten per cent is specialist knowledge. If someone isn't breathing, you must give them artificial respiration, and I think most people know how to do that. If the person is bleeding, the bleeding must be stopped. I think these things are obvious. Medical help must of course be sought and someone must decide whether the victim can be taken to hospital, or whether, given the nature of their particular accident, the victim should be left alone. I Yes, can we talk about road accidents more specifically in a moment? C Yes.

I Is there one particular kind of accident where generally we get it wrong, we follow our common sense but it lets us down, and we do the wrong thing? C Yes, I think there are two things associated with that. On the subject of burns, for example, some people put cream or grease or butter on, and this in fact makes the burn hotter; and the other thing . . . I I'm sorry to interrupt. What

should we do about burns, then"⁷ C Well, you need to decide first of all how bad it is. If it is a minor burn, the best thing to do is put the burnt area under the cold tap, or slowly pour on iced water. I I see.

C This should be done for about ten minutes, and it stops the heat from spreading. However, if it's a bad burn, what we call a third-degree burn, don't touch it, you really should get for this kind of burn expert help immediately. Cover the burn very lightly with something clean like a sheet or a, or a handkerchief and then go straight to a hospital. The other thing people do is to give drinks, especially alcoholic drinks, which means that if the patient needs an operation, we can't give an anaesthetic. I So it's better not to give any

drinks at all.

C Certainly not alcoholic drinks. If the patient complains of thirst, he should wash his mouth with water and not swallow.

I That's very useful. Now back to road accidents. Could you give us some general advice on what to

do at the scene of a car accident?

C Yes. Three things. First of all you should check that the victims are breathing. I mean if they're not, give artificial respiration. The most common injuries .in car accidents in fact are fractures and bleeding, so the second thing to do is stop the bleeding. Thirdly, er . . . very important don't move the victim unless it's absolutely necessary. I mean, if any bones are broken, the injury could be made much worse by moving the victim. You should keep them warm, loosen any tight clothing, and try to reassure them. They'll probably be suffering from shock, so just stay with them until expert help arrives. It's a very good thing to do.

I Right, I see. Now, of course, there are a lot of accidents we haven't had time to talk about. But do you think it's worth while for the general public to find out about them, and find out how they can helg.

C Sure, sure, yes, yes. I do indeed. I mean, I would advise people to find out as much as they possibly can. I mean, many of us freeze and panic when, faced with a crisis. So, you know, why not learn about basic first aid?

I Dr Clarke, thank you very much.

Mass media

Information communication is an important part of life. Young people and adults seek information about weather, sporting events, avail­able entertainment, local, national, and international news. People need information in order to conduct their lives intelligently, for profession­al and academic purposes, and to keep abreast of what is going on around them.

The term mass media, or means of communication, was special­ly coined to call all possible means of obtaining information from such sources as radio and television, printed materials such as newspapers and magazines, and more recently, from computer networks, such as the Internet.

There are thousands of newspapers printed in the world, they remain a popular source of information. They range from thick daily newspapers (called dailies), which are read by millions of people across the world, to small, local, weekly newspapers, which offer news of interest to a specific area. In many countries there may be one or a few national newspapers, and the press may be a national institution. For instance, out of all the newspapers (also called papers or journals) in the United States, only three are considered national: the Wall Street Jounal, specializing in economic and financial issues, the New York Times, and USA Today.

Until recently, it was technically difficult and expensive to trans­port tons of newsprint great distances. At present some journals and news­papers began to use satellites and computers to transport information.

Magazines include information both for the general audience, like the National Geographic which is read and loved by a great num­ber of people throughout the world, and for people with special inter­ests. For instance, The Lancet magazine which is read and respected by medical audience.

Television has become an important source of information, be­ing now the favourite choice for local, national and international news. Its advantages are fairly evident, for television provides both the au­dio- and visual information. In its popularity, television overtook ra­dio, whose role is somewhat reduced to providing background music via FM stations and brief interruptions for news, weather forecasts, and road traffic information for people travelling in cars.

Information is rapidly becoming even more available because of advances in technology. Personal computers, word processors, mo­dems, videodiscs, and videorecording devices are finding their way into more and more homes, classrooms, and businesses. Computers and computer networks have already dramatically changed the storage, ana­lysis, and retrieval of information by business and government agen­cies. That is why modern society, which is sometimes called an indus­trial society, is more often called information society.

A National Disease?

At any time between four in the afternoon and midnight, at least ten million viewers in Great Britain are sure to be watching television. This figure can even rise to 35 million at peak viewing hours. With such large numbers involved, there are those who would maintain that television is in danger of becoming? a national disease.

The average man or woman spends about a third of his or her life asleep, and a further third at work. The remaining third is leisure time — mostly evenings and weekends, and it is during this time that people are free to occupy themselves in any way they see fit. In our great-grandfathers' days the choice of entertainment was strictly limited, but nowadays there is an enormous variety of things to do. The vast majority of the population, though, seem to be quite content to spend their evenings goggling at the box. Even when they go out, the choice of the pub can be influenced by which one has a colour television; it is, in fact, the introduction of colour that has prompted an enormous growth in the box's popularity, and there can be little likelihood of this popularity diminishing in the near future. If, then, we have to live with the monster, we must study its effects.

That the great boom in television's popularity is destroying "the art of conversation"— a widely-held middle-class opin­ion — seems to be at best irrelevant, and at worst demonstrably false. How many conversations does one hear prefaced with the remarks, "Did you see so-and-so last night? Good, wasn't it!" which suggests that television has had a beneficial rather than a detrimental effect on conversational habits: at least people have something to talk about! More disturbing is the possible effect on people's mind and attitudes. There seems to be a particular risk of television bringing a sense.of unreality into all our lives.

Most people, it is probably true to say, would be horrified to see someone gunned down in the street before their very eyes. The same sight repeated nightly in the comfort of one's living-room tends to lose its impact. What worries many people is that if cold-blooded murder — both acted and real — means so little, are scenes of earthquakes and other natural disasters likely to have much effect either?

Such questions are, to a large extent, unanswerable, and it is true to say that predictions about people's probable reactions are dangerous and often misleading. But if television is dulling
our reactions to violence and tragedy, it can also be said to be broadening people's horizons by introducing them to new ideas and activities — ideas which may eventually lead them
into new hobbies and pastimes. In the last few years there has been a vast increase in educative programmes, from the more serious Open University, to Yoga and the joys of amateur gar­
dening. Already then people have a lot to thank tlie small screen for, and in all probability the future will see many grateful viewers who have discovered new pursuits through the
telly's inventive genius.

Television, arguably the most important invention of the twentieth century, is bound to be exerting a major influfi^Qe on the life of the modern man for as long a$\pne dare preset: that

it will also continue to grow in popularity as the years go by is virtually certain. Yet in arousing hitherto unknown interests — challenging to its own hold over the lethargic minds of its de­votees — it is not inconceivable that television may be sowing the seeds of its own downfall.

Internet

is a network connecting many computer networks and based on a common addressing system and communications protocol called TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Inter­net Protocol). From its creation in 1983 it grew rapidly $* beyond its largely academic origin into an increasingly com­mercial and popular medium. By the mid-1990s the Internet connected millions of computers throughout the world. Many commercial computer network and data services also provided at least indirect connection to the Internet.

The Internethad its origin in a U. S. Department of De­fense program called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), established in 1969 to provide a secure and survivable communications network fof organizations engaged in defense-related research Researchers and academics in other fields began to make use of the'network* and at length the National Scieftce Foundation (NSF), which had created a similar and parallel network called NSFNet, took over much of the TCP/IP technology from ARPANET and established a distributed network of networks capable of handling far greater traffic.

Amateur radio, cable television wires, spread spectrum radio, satellite, and fibre optics all have been used to deliver Internetservices. Networked games, networked monetary transactions, and virtual museums are among applications being developed that both extend the network's utility and test the limits of its technology.

Electronic mail,abbreviation E-MAIL, are messages trans­mitted and received by digital computers through a network. An efectronic-mail, or E-mail, system allows computer users on a network to send text, graphics, and sometimes sounds and animated images to other users.

On most networks, data can be simultaneously sent to a universe of users, or to a select group or individual. Network users typically have an electronic mailbox that receives, stores, and manages their correspondence. Recipients can elect to view, print, save, edit, answer, or otherwise react to communi­cations. Many E-mail systems have advanced features that alert users to incoming messages or permit them to employ special privacy features. Large corporations and institutions use E-mail systems as an important communication link among employees and other people allowed on their networks. E-mail is also available on major public on-line and bulletin board systems, many of which maintain free or low-cost global communication networks.

The Story So Far

The idea of a machine able to broadcast both sound and vision goes back to 1875. But it wasn't until 1926 that a Scottish engineer turned the idea into a practical reality. Now, his in­vention dominates the modern media. This is its story.

John Logie Baird produced the first television pictures just eight years after the First World War. They were in black and white and were not very clear, but he had proved that the prin­ciple worked. Early sets made in the years Baird's break­through cost as much as a small car and not many were sold. Soon, though, his original system was improved and in 1936 Britain's first regular TV programme went on the air. "Here's Hooking At You" was broadcast by the BBC from north Lon­don's Alexandra Palace studios twice a day for a weekly bud­get of one thousand pounds. But Great Britain wasn't the only country producing programmes. Other European nations, in­cluding Germany, were also involved in the early days of tele­vision. As, of course, was America — and it's there that the real TV revolution began after World War Two.

US television boomed in the late '40s. Commercial stations began to open in almost every city, and national networks made programmes which were seen from coast to coast. One of the
American networks — CBS — even developed a colour service as early as 1951. Two years later, TV took another important step when it covered its first major international §vent — the
coronation of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. It was the first time that a worldwide audience of millions had seen history take place in their own homes.

By the end of the decade, TV culture was rapidly becoming a fact of life on both sides of the Atlantic, Even so, it was still a very young medium — lots of people didn't have sets — and many experts thought it wouldn't last. That all changed in the '60s and '70s, though, as television started to satisfy the pub­lic's desire, not just for entertainment, but also for rapid, accu­rate information.'As more and more sets were sold, the impor­tance of TV news quickly grew. After all — what other medium could show you live — as TV did in 1969 — Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon?

Since 1980 there have been four more major developments. The first is video, which has given viewers the power to control what they watch and when they watch it. These days, fifty per cent of homes have a VCR (video-cassette recorder) and mil­lions more are being sold every year.

The second is satellite TV. Thanks to DBS (direct broadcast satellites), dozens of new channels are now available to anyone who buys a receiving "dish". Many of these new channels spe­cialize in one kind of programme — e. g, news, sport, cartoons, music, movies.

The thirddevelopment is cable — a system of hi-tech wires, which provides even more channels... at a price. But not only that. Cable also makes it possible for you to communicate through

your TV,⁴ not just the other way around. More about that in a moment.

Fourthly, there's HDTV (high definition television), which now offers a much clearer and more realistic picture than was possible even a few years ago.

So ... more channels, more choice, more clarity. What is there left for TV to achieve in the future? The answer to that is two-way communication. Modern technology means that twen­ty-first century televisions will be linked to computer data­banks. This way, viewers will be able to ask questions (via re­mote control) about what they're watching and the answers will appear on their screens. This idea is called "hyper-media" and it's still at an early stage. But then, as we've just seen, TV has come a very long way in a very short time. The hyper-media revolution could; happen sooner than many people think.

Job

GETTING A JOB

Choosing an Occupation

One of the most difficult problems a young person faces is deciding what to do about a career. There are individuals, of course, who from the time they are six years old "know" that they want to be doctors or pilots or fire fighters, but the majority of us do not get around to making a decision about an occupation or career until somebody or something forces us to face the problem.

Choosing an occupation takes time, and there are a lot of things you have to think about as you try to decide what you would like to do. You may find that you will have to take special courses to qualify⁰' for a particular kind of work, or may find out that you will need to get some actual work experience to gain enough knowledge to qualify for a particular job.

Fortunately, there are a lot of people you can turn to for advice and help in making your decision. At most schools, there are teachers who are professionally qualified to counsel you and to give detailed information about job qualifications. And you can talk over your ideas with family members and friends who are always ready to listen and to offer suggestions. But even if you get other people involved in helping you make a decision, self evaluation is an important part of the decision-making process.

Employment Agencies

InBritain there is a special service for school leavers, the Careers Advisory Service, which helps young people who are looking for their first job. Careers Officers give practical advice on interview techniques, application forms, letters, pay, National Insurance and Trade Unions.

One business organization that you may use when you are job-hunting⁽¹⁾ is an employment agency. There are the state employment services and nonprofit agencies that do not receive fees for finding jobs for people. There exist also some private employment agencies which receive a fee. Some employment agencies see applicants without an appointment. These include the state employment services and nonprofit agencies. Counselors there may spend a few minutes with each applicant.

But an agency that deals with technical and higher-salaried jobs, spends much more time with each applicant. Appointments are necessary in this type of agency, where a counselor may be able to see only a few applicants a day.

An interview for any kind of job, whether the interview is obtained through a friend, classified advertisement, or an agency, generally requires an appointment. It is important to be on time for your appointment. If you have made an appointment and cannot keep it, or if you will be more than ten minutes late, you should always call the interviewer. If you do not cancel the appointment or notify the interviewer that you will be late, you will create a negative impression on your possible employer.

To make efficient use of time, American business people schedule their days hour by hour. In most American business situations, appointments are a necessary courtesy.

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