Hardy pensioner (老烟枪) Dorothy Howe has reached her 100^th birthday--- despite smoking nearly half a million cigarettes during her life.

The retired secretary took her first smoking aged 16 and has help puffed her way through 15 cigarettes every day since then.

She has smoked around 460,000 cigarettes over the last 84 years--- costing $ 193,000 at today’s prices.

But despite the obvious health risks, Dorothy now believes smoking is the secret to her old age--- and a regular drop of whisky.

Relaxing with her favorites tipple(烈酒)of Bell’s, she said，“I put my health down to whisky and cigarettes. I only drink when I’m out but my doctor said I wouldn’t be alive without them. ”

“I’m still alive and I can lift my elbows---it’s great. I’ve had a great life and God has treated me very well. I’ve been very lucky.”

“I keep telling myself that I’m going to quit smoking when they put the prices up, but that’s just not going to happen now. Whisky tastes just as good as it used to though. My pins aren’t as fast as they used to be, but my mind is still sharp,” she said.

On her milestone birthday, friends took Dort to her local pub where she had a couple of drinks before returning home to open her card from the Queen. Friend Lynn Sass said,” She has the respect and friendship of a lot of people around here. She’s wonderful and a great character,” “ She’s thought very highly of and we hope she’s had a great time. It’s a real achievement for a great woman.”

There’s a trend that more city people decide that they want to grow crops and raise some live-stock (家禽). After all, there are few things more satisfying than biting into a bunch of tender, red carrots you grow yourself, or a fresh egg from the backyard.

Most gardeners understand that the soil in big cities is often polluted with lead and know to get their soil tested. But most are pretty clueless about how to prevent other types of pollutants, like heavy metals and asbestos(石棉)from getting into their vegetables.

Part of the problem is that “there might be pollutants that gardeners can’t test for,” says Brent Kim, a program officer. Most soil tests look for lead, cadrniunt(镉)and arsenic(砷). But they don’t test things like chemicals left behind by cars, which might have escaped into the soil.

So if you’re thinking of staring an urban garden, Kim says, once you’ve found a plot of land, you should learn what’s now an empty plot or a backyard might once have been a parking lot, a gas station or a chemical ground. “Knowing its past will give you some idea about what might be in that soil,” he says.

“People tend to think raised beds are going to solve their pollution problem,” Kim says. But polluted soil could easily kicked onto your plants, especially if the beds are low to the ground.

“Another consideration is that you have to be careful about the materials that you’re using to build a raised bed,” Kim says. Recycling wood from an old construction site might seem like a good, eco-friendly idea. But that wood could be treated with chemicals you don’t want touching your fruits and veggies, Kim says. And it’s always a good idea to use gloves while gardening, and wash all your produce thoroughly.

“I see these urban growing spaces as these oases(绿洲)in the middle of these urban environments,” Kim says. “They bring communities together, and they help people save money on fresh produce. Urban growing spaces are amazing. Let’s keep doing this, but let’s do it safely.”

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     There is an English saying: "Laughter is the best medicine." Until recently, few people took the saying seriously. Now, however, doctors have begun to investigate laughter and the effects it has on the human body. They have found that laughter really can improve people's health.

     Tests were carried out to study the effects of laughter on the body. People watched funny films while doctors checked their heart rate, blood pressure, breathing and muscles. It was found that laughter has similar effects to physical exercise.  It increases blood pressure, the heart rate and breathing. It also works several groups of muscle in the face, the stomach, and even the feet. If laughter exercises the body, it must be beneficial.

     Other tests have shown that laughter appears to be able to reduce the effects of pain on the body. In one experiment doctors produced pain in groups of students who listened to different radio programs. The group that tolerated pain for the longest time was the one that listened to a funny program. The reason why laughter can reduce pain seems to be that it helps to produce a kind of natural chemical in the brain which decreases both stress and pain.

      As a result of these discoveries, some doctors in the United States now hold laughter clinics, in which they help to improve their patients' condition by encouraging them to laugh. They have found that even if their patients do not really feel like laughing, making them smile is enough to produce beneficial effects similar to those caused by laughter.

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       As the proverb says,＂no one knows the value of health until he loses it.＂In other words, nothing is more valuable than health.

It is clear that health is the foundation（基础）of one’s future success. If you become sick, it is scarcely pursue (从事) your career effectively, much less make your dreams come true. On the other hand, if you are strong, you can do all out to overcome the obstacles (障碍) that lie ahead of you.

       Health is the resource of our energy. What should we do to maintain our health? First we should exercise every day to strengthen our muscles. Second, we might as well keep good hours. If we get up early, we can breathe fresh air and see the sunrise. This habit can do wonders for our outlook on life. Third, there is a proverb that says, “Prevent is better than cure.” If pay close attention to your health, you can avoid getting sick. Or at least cure yourself of a disease while it is still in its beginning stage.

       In conclusion, health is more important than wealth. Those who are rich but poor in health are no more fortunate than those who are poor and healthy in body. If you want your wish to come true, health is the most important component（组成部分）of your success.

     How to deal with waste has been a problem since humans started producing it. As more and more people choose to live close together in cities, the waste-disposal（处理）problem becomes increasingly difficult.

       During the eighteenth century, it was usual for several neighboring towns to get together to select a faraway spot as a dump site. Residents or trash haulers（垃圾拖运者）would transport household rubbish, rotted wood, and old possessions to the site. Periodically（定期地）some of the trash was burned and the rest was buried. The unpleasant sights and smells caused no problem because nobody lived close by.
           Factories, mills, and other industrial sites also had waste to be disposed of. Those located on rivers often just dumped the unwanted remains into the water. Others built huge burners with chimneys to deal with the problem.

        Several facts make these choices unacceptable to modern society. The first problem is space.  Landfills(填埋场)are most needed in heavily populated areas. Such areas rarely have empty land suitable for this purpose. Property is either too expensive or too close to residential（住宅区的）neighborhoods. Long-distance trash hauling has been a common practice, but once farm areas are refusing to accept rubbish from elsewhere, cheap land within trucking distance of major city areas is almost nonexistent.

      Awareness（意识）of pollution dangers has led to more strict rules of waste disposal. Pollution of rivers, ground water, land and air is a price people can no longer pay to get rid of waste. The amount of waste, however, continues to grow.

       Recycling efforts have become commonplace, and many towns require their people to take part. However, even the most efficient recycling programs can hope to deal with only about 50 percent of a city’s reusable waste.