There is a danger hanging over your life

L he world is getting fatter.

If you are young and fit, don't think this doesn't concern you. Teenagers, too, are getting fatter. Obesity rates in teens, according to experts, are doubling!

Surveys show that the favourite foods among teenagers both in Europe and the USA

are:

• hamburgers (cheeseburgers, fishburgers, beefburgers, eggburgers ... in fact anythingburgers!)

• chips (they are called French fries in America)

• hot dogs

• pizzas

• ice-cream

Besides, young people watch too much TV. The average British teenager, for example, spends 27 hours a week in front of the "box", and nobody knows how much time he sits in front of the computer.

What will today's teenagers look like when they grow up? Imagine yourself as a lazy, fat old man or woman with eyes glued to the TV screen, hands down a packet of chips, munch-munch, staring at the glaring pictures. A real nightmare! But this is the danger hanging over your life!

(from Speak Out, abridged)

GAME OF CHANCE

Are there any practical rules for healthy living? Very few. The formula for healthy life cannot be put into words — it can only be practised. Some people break the so-called health every day and escape punishment and some look after their health and don't live any longer in the end.

There are hardly any rules worth having but there are some principles which will help to counteract the harmful genes.

These principles are: love in childhood. Love from parents.

Another principle is — healthy nutrition — with all elements in proper proportion.

Then comes control of environment— air, water and especially the new pollutives.

Remember, too, the animals — they have a right to share in the health we want for ourselves.

Stresses are an essential part of being alive — but the art of life is to arrange rules that stress does not become strain. A healthy organism is extremely tough. It can withstand overwork, fatigue, anxiety, microbes — up to a certain point, of course.

A personal belief— the most important element in a healthy life is some faith in life which mobilizes our faculties and makes the most of them.

Perhaps these health principles seem too theoretical, but they are golden rules which can stretch our powers and help us in our fight against harmful genes.

(from Health, abridged and simplified)

MASS MEDIA

WHAT IS NEWS?

What is news? The kind of event that becomes news depends on several factors.

When did it happen? To be news it must be immediate and current. What happened? Was the event important? If so, it's news. How and where did it happen?

Who did it happen to, and what may happen as a result? The answers to all these questions make up what we call news.

What kind of stories make news? Accidents, murders, awful fires — do only sad events make news? It depends on what is happening on a particular day. At first glance it may seem that newspapers print more "bad" news than "good" news. On certain bad days that may be true, but if you look through a typical newspaper, you may be surprised at the amount of good news on its pages.

Events make news because they are out of the ordinary. To most people, a story that describes an unusual happening is far more interesting than one about what's happening and if an important event happens, it's news, good or bad.

(from The World Around Us)

AMERICAN PRESS

Because of the great size of the USA, local newspapers are more important than national ones. Only the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune and the Wall Street Journal are read over a large part of the country. But there are other newspapers that have a wide interest and influence; they include the Washington Post, the popular Daily News, the Baltimore Sun, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the St Louis Post Dispatch and the San Francisco Examiner. Most US newspapers are controlled by large monopolists.

The US press plays an important part in the business of government; the press conference is an American invention.

In the 20m century newspapers have ranged from tabloids featuring pictures and sensational news to, "responsible journals". Their pages are varied and include columns devoted to news, editorials, letters to the editor, business and finance, sports, entertainment, art, music, books, comics, fashions, food, society, television and radio.

As the great newspaper chains and news agencies grew, America's press lost its individualistic character; many features are common to newspapers all over the country, which therefore have a uniform appearance.

Although there are no separate Sunday papers as there are in Great Britain, US daily papers do have special Sunday editions. Many of these are remarkable in size: the New York Times Sunday edition regularly has over 200 pages, and has had 946.

The New York Times has the largest circulation of any newspaper in the US, selling more than two million copies each day.

Aside from a few notable exceptions like the New York Times, the St Louis Post- Dispatch, the" Washington Post, the press is daily filled with sex and violence. It is a river of morbidity, murder, divorce and gang fights. It's a melange of chintzy gossip columns, horoscopes, homemaking hints, advice to the lovelorn, comics, crossword puzzles and insane features like: "Are you happily married? Take the following test..."

Almost every American newspaper carries comic strips, usually at least a page of them.

In contrast to daily newspapers, many magazines in the USA are national and even international. Those with the widest circulation are Time, Reader's Digest, TV Guide, Woman's Day, Better Home and Gardens, Family Circle, the National Geographic Magazine and Ladies' Home Journal.

(from The USA by G.D.Tomakhin, abridged)

NEWSPAPER WARS

With so many modern forms of communication such as radio, TV and the Internet, newspaper companies now find it difficult to sell enough copies of their papers to survive. Many papers have a low circulation.

They use many methods to increase their circulation and to decrease the circulation of the other papers. Such strong competition has created the paper wars.

Newspaper companies use many methods to increase their circulation. One method is to offer cheap annual subscription; another is to sell a paper at a very low price for a month or two. Only big companies can afford this predatory pricing.

Newspapers also try to introduce new ideas. The problem is, however, that every time one company introduces a new idea, the other companies simply copy it!

(from BBC English)

HOOKED ON THE NET

The latest addiction to trap thousands of people is the Internet, which has been blamed for broken relationships, job losses, financial ruin and even suicide.

Psychologists now recognize Internet Addiction Syndrome (IAS) as a new illness that could cause serious problems and ruin many lives.

IAS is similar to other problems like gambling, smoking and drinking: addicts have dreams about the Internet; they need to use it first thing in the morning; they lie to their parents and partners about how much time they spend online; they wish they could cut down, but are unable to do so.

Many users spend up to 40 hours a week on the Internet. Some of the addicts are teenagers who are already hooked on computer games and who find it very difficult to resist the games on the Internet.

(from Sunday Times, abridged)