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    Laughter Yoga(大笑瑜伽) is one form of yoga. Madan Kataria, a doctor in Mumbai, India invented it. He believed that people had forgotten how to really laugh. Through his research he made an interesting discovery. The human mind does not know the difference between forced laughter and real laughter. Forced laughter can also lead to a feeling of happiness.

And then Kataria had the idea for a group of people who would laugh together. He gathered(聚集) a few of his friends together. They met in a public park in Mumbai. That small group grew and grew! And this is how people began to do Laughter Yoga. People doing Laughter Yoga usually meet together in a Laughter Club. Kataria’s friends formed the first Laughter Club in 1995.

Today, there’s over 5,000 Laughter Clubs in 53 countries. But what exactly do people do in a Laughter Club? People in Laughter Yoga meetings usually do a series of exercises include body movement, correct breathing, and of course, laughter!At the beginning of the meeting, people may have to force themselves to laugh. But by the end, everyone is usually laughing in a real way! Each meeting is a little different. But there are common exercises groups may do.

Experts say that the exercises help blood move around the body faster. They also say that Laughter Yoga helps people deal with the bad things in their lives. They say that a person may go into a Laughter Club meeting feeling sad, angry, or worried. But then, people act happy. After a time, forced laughter becomes real laughter. This is one reason why people may enjoy Laughter Yoga so much!

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.”

People in theUSthought Ebola was only a disease, accompanied with fever and found inAfricaat the beginning.  (1)  then a man from west Africa died from Ebola at a hospital in Dallas, Texas. And two nurses   (2)   for him became infected(感染) with the virus, which made the US government publish new guidelines to   (3)   health workers．

Top American  (4)  have repeatedly said that most people have little chance of being infected．Experts have  (5)   that Ebola can only be spread through infected person’s body fluids — like blood．But it   (6)   many Americans are  (7)  what they have heard．

A recent survey found more than 80 percent of Americans believe that Ebola can be spread in many   (8)  , including air forced through the nose or mouth. The Harvard School of Public Health   (9)   the findings. The study also showed that most adults fear there will be a(n)  (10)  of Ebola in the United States soon.

  (11)   survey found that more than 70 percent of Americans would support calls to   (12)   travel to and from Ebola-affected parts ofAfrica.

Thomas Frieden heads the U.S．Centers for Disease Control and Prevention．When asked whether   (13)   officials had considered a travel ban, Mr．Frieden had  (14)    to say：“We won’t be able to check travelers for   (15)  when they leave or when they arrive. We won’t be able, as we do   (16)  , to take a detailed history to see if they were   (17)   when they arrive. When they   (18)   , we wouldn’t be able to impose quarantine（强加隔离）as we now can if they have high-risk touch.”

Last week, President Barack Obama urged Americans not to   (19)   what he called “ panic or fear ”.

This week，the administration announced that all travelers reaching the United States from some African nations are  (20)   to pass through one of five airports.

Most of the suggestions about exercise are pretty clear— do something—anything—to get moving. Any activity is better than no activity, so simply letting the body move is what's important. And there's a good reason for the simplicity of that message—with one third of Americans not exercising at all, the easier the advice, the better

   But for those who follow those suggestions and get regular exercise, things could be a little more difficult to deal with. How far is too far when it comes to pushing your body? Overdoing exercise can lead to injuries, and may end up removing all the benefits physical activity can have.

   Our bodies are trained to adapt, so even if you run or bike every day, at a certain point, your body starts to coast. Your muscles don't work as hard, your heart doesn't beat as quickly, and you don't breathe as heavily to pump oxygen to your cells. "When you hit a plateau (稳定状态), it is your body getting used to an activity. You have achieved your body's potential for that activity." says Scott Danberg, Director of Fitness. "If you keep working at the same activity, it's impossible sometimes to keep moving up. It means you are still in great shape, but you have to start changing things to move forward."

   So how do you make sure that your exercise continues to work for you? Some fitness trainers recommend changing workouts every four to six weeks to strengthen the body. Others say that the best test is whether your workout challenges you—if you're breathing hard and feel tired after exercising, then you're harvesting the benefits of that workout, whatever it might be.

   And how do you know if you're pushing too hard? While putting some stress on the body is required to improve fitness, Barbara Bushman, a professor at Missouri State University, says exercise overload can cause injury. "Typically for beginners, gradual increases in duration (期间) are recommended until the person is comfortable with longer exercise duration. Then the duration might be cut back a bit but the stress increased. The idea is not to increase all areas at once," she says.

   Figuring out when to push and when to pull back isn't an exact science. Genes, for example, influence metabolic rates(代谢速率)and body types, both of which contribute to fitness. One of the best ways to find the most effective exercise plan for you—suited to your body type and your fitness goals—is to regularly step back. A doctor or trainer can help, or you can try the assessments (评估)from the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). A good check-in should include your heart rate and body composition. Tracking these measures while you exercise will not only tell you how far you have progressed, but let you know if you've either hit a plateau or are overdoing the workouts.

Our risk of cancer rises sharply as we age. So it makes sense that the elderly should be routinely screened for new tumors(肿瘤)—or doesn’t it?

While such vigilant(警觉的) tracking of cancer is a good thing in general, researchers are increasingly questioning whether all of this testing is necessary for the elderly. With the percentage of people over 65 expected to nearly double by 2050, it’s important to consider the health benefits of screening against the risks and costs of routine testing.

In many cases, screening can lead to surgeries to remove cancer, while the cancers themselves may be slow-growing and may not have serious health problems in patients’ remaining years. But he message that everyone must screen for cancer has become so deep-rooted that when health care experts recommended that women under 50 and over 74 stop screening for breast cancer, it caused a fierce reaction among doctors, patients and groups who are in favor of the screening.

It’s hard to remove deeply held beliefs about cancer screening with scientific data. Certainly, there are people over age 75 who have had cancers detected by routine screening, and gained several extra years of life because of treatment. And clearly, people over age 75 who have other risk factors for cancer, such as a family history or formerly personal experience with the disease, should continue to get screened regularly. But for the remainder, the risk of cancer, while increased at the end of life, must be balanced with other factors like remaining life expectancy(预期寿命).

A recent study suggests that doctors start to make more objective decisions about who will truly benefit from screening—especially considering the explosion of the elderly that will soon increase in our population.

It’s not an easy calculation to make, but one that makes sense for all patients. Dr. Otis Brawley said, “Many doctors are ordering screening tests purely to cover themselves. We need to think about the reasonable use of health care.”

That means making some difficult decisions with elderly patients, and going against the misguided belief that when it comes to health care, more is always better.

What will man be like in the future — in 5,000 or even 50,000 years from now？We can only make guesses, of course, but we can be sure that he will be different from what he is today, for man is slowly changing all the time.

Let us take an obvious example. Man, even five hundred years ago, was shorter than he is today. Now, on average, men are about three inches taller. Five hundred years is relatively a short period of time, so we may assume that man will continue to grow taller. Again, in the modern world we use our brains a great deal. Even so, we still make use of only about 20% of the brainˈs capacity. As time goes on, however, we shall have to use our brains more and more, and eventually we shall need larger ones！This is likely to bring about a physical change to the head, in particular, the forehead will grow larger.

Nowadays our eyes are in constant use. In fact, we use them so much that very often they become weaker and we have to wear glasses. But over a very long period of time it is likely that manˈs eyes will grow stronger.

On the other hand, we tend to make less use of our arms and legs. These, as a result, are likely to grow weaker. At the same time, however, our fingers will grow more sensitive because they are used a great deal in modern life.

But what about hair？This will probably disappear from the body altogether in course of time because it does not serve a useful purpose any longer. In the future, then，both sexes are likely to be bald.

Perhaps all this gives the impression that future man will not be a very attractive creature to look at！This may well be true. All the same, in spite of all these changes, future man will still have a lot in common with us. He will still be a human being, with thoughts and emotions similar to our own.

Music for Humans and Humpback Whales

As researches conclude in Science, the love of music is not only a universal feature of the human species, but is also deeply fixed in complex structures of the human brain, and is far more ancient than previously suspected.

In the articles that discuss the field of bio-musicology, the study of the biological basis for the creation and appreciation of music, researchers present various evidence to show that music-making is at once an original human“business”, and an art form with skillful performers throughout the animal kingdom.

The new reports stress that humans hold no copyright on sound wisdom, and that a number of nonhuman animals produce what can rightly be called music, rather than random sound. Recent in-depth analyses of thesongs sung by humpback whales show that, even when their organ would allow them to do otherwise, the animals converge on the same choices relating to sounds and beauty, and accept the same laws of song composition as those preferred by human musicians, and human ears, everywhere.

For example, male humpback whales, who spend six months of each year doing little else but singing, use rhythms similar to those found in human music and musical phrases of similar length-- a few seconds. Whales are able to make sounds over a range of at least seven octaves(八度音阶), yet they tend to move on through a song in beautiful musical intervals, rather than moving forwards madly. They mix the sounds like drums and pure tones in a ratio(比例)which agrees with that heard in much western music. They also use a favorite technique of human singers, the so-called A-B-A form, in which a theme is stated, then developed, and then returned to in slightly revised form.

Perhaps most impressive, humpback songs contain tunes that rhyme.“This suggests that whales use rhyme in the same way we do: as a technique in poem to help them remember complex material,”the researchers write.