Paul Neal Adair was born in Houston, Texas in nineteen fifteen. While growing up, he became known as Red Adair because his hair was bright red. As a young man, Red Adair dropped out of high school to help support his family. He worked as a laborer for several different companies. In nineteen thirty-eight, Adair got his first oil-related job with the Otis Pressure Control Company.

During World War Two, Adair served on a trained army team that removed and destroyed bombs. After the war, he returned to Houston and took a job in putting out fires in oil wells for fourteen years. But in nineteen fifty-nine, Adair started his own company. During his thirty-six years in business, Red Adair and his crews battled more than two thousand fires all over the world. Some were on land. Others were on ocean oil-drilling structures. Some fires were in burning oil wells. Others were in natural gas wells.

Putting out oil well fires can be difficult, but Red Adair developed modern methods to extinguish(熄滅) and cover burning oil wells. They became known in the industry as Wild Well Control techniques. In addition to explosives（炸藥）, the techniques involved large amounts of water and dirt. Adair also developed special equipment made of bronze metal to help extinguish oil well fires.

Needless to say, Red Adair was a leader in this specialized and extremely dangerous profession. Red Adair was known for not being afraid. He was also known for his sense of calm and safety. None of his workers were ever killed while putting out oil well or gas fires. He described his work this way: “It scares you -- all the noise, the rattling, the shaking. But the look on everyone's face, when you are finished and packing, it is the best smile in the world; and there is nobody hurt, and the well is under control.”

Red Adair had spent his seventy-sixth birthday in Kuwait working side by side with his crew. When asked when he might retire, he told reporters: “Retire? I do not know what that word means. As long as a man is able to work, and he is productive out there and he feels good – keep at it.”

Red Adair died in two thousand four. He was eighty-nine years old. At his funeral（葬禮）, many family members and friends honored him by wearing red clothes. Many Americans regard Red Adair as a hero. He lived his life on the edge of danger. He was known for his willingness to risk his own life to save others.

New School Schedule Under Investigation

In most of the United States, students attend classes for five days each week–Monday through Friday. Schools are required to hold classes for about 180 days a year. Recently, schools in some areas of the country have begun investigating（調(diào)查） the idea of holding classes for four days a week. Classes would meet either Monday through Thursday, or Tuesday through Friday. Some schools in twelve American states are now using that schedule.

The students still have the same number of total hours in class as before. But they attend school for a longer time on each of the four days. In the western state of Colorado, schools on the four-day week hold classes for seven and one half hours a day for 144 days. Traditional schools meet for six hours a day for 180 days.

Many schools on a four-day schedule offer special programs for students or teachers, trips or sports competitions on the fifth day. Officials say this gives students even more time in class than on the traditional schedule. Students do not have to miss school to go to the events. Students can also go to doctors or other appointments（約會） on the fifth day.

The main reason for shortening the school week is an economic one. Small school systems say they can save money by not providing meals or transportation for students on the fifth day. And they say research shows that students are not harmed by the shorter week.

Opponents（反對者） of the four-day school week say the research is not clear on this. They say the four-day week has not been shown to improve students’ learning. And they say that three days off from school each week is too long a time away from class.

Unique Tradition from UK

Boxing Day

    This holiday, which is observed on December 26, is a unique part of the Christmas season in Great Britain, as well as other Commonwealth nations. Boxing Day comes from a tradition that began in the Middle Ages more than 800 years ago. On this day, English churches would open their ‘a(chǎn)lms box’ and distribute its contents to needy members of the community. It was also a day for servants to celebrate the holidays with their families, having usually worked the day before. Today, Boxing Day is one of the twenty-two paid holidays received by most working Brits. Most people now spend Christmas Day with their family and reserve Boxing Day for exchanging gifts with friends. Although the government shuts down for the day, cinemas and theatres are open.

Queen’s TelegramWWW.K**S*858$$U.COM

    In the United States, if you make it to the ripe old age of 101 or 102, Willard Scott will wish you happy birthday on national television. In England, the queen herself will send her congratulations. This fairly new custom is known as "the Queen’s Telegram" and assures centenarians (people at least 100 years old) that they will receive a birthday telegram from the queen on their one-hundredth birthday. The telegram is so longed for by some Brits that one 98-year-old woman was recently proven to have faked her age by two years just to receive the telegram.

High Tea

    High tea was first enjoyed by the English working class during the 1700s. This ritual (儀式) began as a practical attempt to hold off hunger pains between breakfast and supper, as eating just two daily meals was common at the time. It was called “high” tea because it was usually taken sitting on top stools in a tea shop or standing at a counter or buffet table. Today, high tea has become a more elegant and popular tradition that is practiced in fine hotels and restaurants around the world.

Public Houses

    Visiting a pub is one of Britain’s oldest forms of entertainment. The idea for the first public houses was brought to Britain thousands of years ago by conquering Roman army. The first pubs served only wine, but after the discovery of hops（啤酒花） in the fourteenth century, pubs began to serve mainly beer and ale（麥芽酒）, as they do today.

   British pubs operate between 11 a.m. and 11 p.m. every day except Sunday, when they must close at 10:30 p.m. The drinking age in Britain is eighteen, but fourteen-year-olds may enter a pub unaccompanied if they order a meal.

Unique Tradition from UK

When Percy Spencer invented the microwave, it changed the world greatly. People would no longer have to wait endless hours while cooking their food in an old-fashioned oven. Instead, using the microwave has allowed them to cook food in just seconds.

According to the medical website mercola.com, just about “ninety percent of Americans have microwaves in their homes”. However, is this convenient invention as perfect as it seems?

There are many reports of microwaves changing the original qualities of the food, which can cause cancer as well as changes in the body.

“Electro-magnetic (電磁的) radiation harms food, and changes substances cooked in it to dangerous products,” Dr. Lita Lee – chemist, nutritionist, author and lecturer – wrote in her book, Health Effects of Microwave Radiation – Microwave Ovens (1991).

However, the microwave is not only for food; microwaves are used in medicine as well. For example, it warms heating pads and used to warm blood used in transfusions (輸血).

Norma Levitt, a hip surgery patient in an Oklahoma hospital (1991), died after blood being heated for her transfusion was altered in the microwave. A lawsuit followed and because of this incident, blood is no longer heated in the microwave.

Regardless of what has happened, big companies still claim that microwaves are great machines that have caused trouble to “few people” and have had “few consequences”. However, people should decide if saving a few minutes is more important than preventing cancerous cells from entering the body.

Dr. Jonathan Wright, Medical Director of Tahoma Clinic in Renton, Washington, considers the microwave unhealthy and recommends some alternatives.

“Try eating a lot of your food, like vegetables, uncooked. Ideally, at least one-third of the food in your diet should be uncooked, since this is the form that will give you the maximum amount of nutrients. If you do want to cook some food or heat up leftovers, use your stove (火爐),” he said.

These alternative cooking styles may take a little time from your day, but can help you lead a healthier and more stable lifestyle. These methods will allow you to get the most nutrients from your food, as well.

Health is not valued till sickness comes. In today’s fast-paced modern world, we should have more consideration towards peoples’ health.

Unique Tradition from UK

Boxing Day

    This holiday, which is observed on December 26, is a unique part of the Christmas season in Great Britain, as well as other Commonwealth nations. Boxing Day comes from a tradition that began in the Middle Ages more than 800 years ago. On this day, English churches would open their ‘a(chǎn)lms box’ and distribute its contents to needy members of the community. It was also a day for servants to celebrate the holidays with their families, having usually worked the day before. Today, Boxing Day is one of the twenty-two paid holidays received by most working Brits. Most people now spend Christmas Day with their family and reserve Boxing Day for exchanging gifts with friends. Although the government shuts down for the day, cinemas and theatres are open.

Queen’s TelegramWWW.K**S*858$$U.COM

    In the United States, if you make it to the ripe old age of 101 or 102, Willard Scott will wish you happy birthday on national television. In England, the queen herself will send her congratulations. This fairly new custom is known as "the Queen’s Telegram" and assures centenarians (people at least 100 years old) that they will receive a birthday telegram from the queen on their one-hundredth birthday. The telegram is so longed for by some Brits that one 98-year-old woman was recently proven to have faked her age by two years just to receive the telegram.

High Tea

    High tea was first enjoyed by the English working class during the 1700s. This ritual (儀式) began as a practical attempt to hold off hunger pains between breakfast and supper, as eating just two daily meals was common at the time. It was called “high” tea because it was usually taken sitting on top stools in a tea shop or standing at a counter or buffet table. Today, high tea has become a more elegant and popular tradition that is practiced in fine hotels and restaurants around the world.

Public Houses

    Visiting a pub is one of Britain’s oldest forms of entertainment. The idea for the first public houses was brought to Britain thousands of years ago by conquering Roman army. The first pubs served only wine, but after the discovery of hops（啤酒花） in the fourteenth century, pubs began to serve mainly beer and ale（麥芽酒）, as they do today.

   British pubs operate between 11 a.m. and 11 p.m. every day except Sunday, when they must close at 10:30 p.m. The drinking age in Britain is eighteen, but fourteen-year-olds may enter a pub unaccompanied if they order a meal.

Unique Tradition from UK

Experts debunk Maya doomsday（末日） predictions -- But that hasn't stopped books, movies from cashing in.

If the ancient Maya and filmmaker Roland Emmerich are correct, the apocalypse（大災(zāi)變） will happen very fast, maybe quicker than his new 2½-hour movie.

Predictions of global ruination are rippling around the globe with seismic（地震的） force, all loosely based on a 5,000-year Maya calendar that ends Dec. 21, 2012. Countless Web sites and blogs anticipate(預(yù)料) the end of days, as do various New Age groups and would-be prophets(預(yù)言者) offering guidance and how-to tips. On Amazon.com , you can read hundreds of book titles combining the year 2012 with terms such as “apocalypse,” “catastrophe” and “end of the world.”

As always, doomsday sells — and a lot of people are buying it.

“There's the psychobabble(心理囈語) aspect,” said Robert Epstein, former editor of Psychology Today magazine and a lecturer at the University of California San Diego. “It's the Sigmund Freud/death wish idea: People glom onto（對…感興趣） doomsday predictions because there's some small part of them that wants to die, and die spectacularly（壯觀的）. I don't believe it, but it's one way to look at this.”

It's Emmerich's way. The German director specializes in wreaking havoc on an epic scale, from climatic cataclysm in 2004's “The Day After Tomorrow” to angry aliens and reptiles in “Independence Day” and “Godzilla.”  In “2012,” he finishes the job.

The digitized disasters of “2012” are oversized, overwrought and sometimes literally over the top, as when a humongous tsunami washes over the Himalayan mountains, whose average height exceeds 20,000 feet. Meanwhile in Los Angeles, a 10.5-magnitude earthquake — a temblor at least 30 times more powerful than any real quake ever recorded — yanks the city apart like a giant zipper, sending chunks sliding into the Pacific Ocean.

That's not physically possible, of course. Nor is a 10.5-magnitude quake, said Thomas Rockwell, a geologist at San Diego State University. To generate that much energy, “you'd need a rupture that extends all around the planet.”

All of that other stuff “is pure Hollywood bunk,” said Bernard Jackson at the UCSD Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences.

Entertaining, though, unless you happen to believe the Maya really predicted the end of the world. They didn't, said Geoff Braswell, a UCSD anthropologist. The long-count calendar doesn't signal the end of anything except the end of that particular calendar. “It's just like a car odometer. Unfortunately, hardly anybody reads ancient Mayan. Modern media hype（騙局）, on the other hand, is almost inescapable.

Nicholas Christenfeld, a professor of psychology at UCSD, suggests a more elemental human need. Being swallowed by the Earth or incinerated in a giant fireball “fits neatly with the idea that people want to believe there's a plan, that existence isn't random and pointless,” Christenfeld said.

“We all missed creation, but if we can bear witness at the other end, be part of some grand cosmic destruction, that gives life meaning,” he said. 

It helps, too, not to think very hard about the facts, said Lou Manza, a professor of psychology at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pa. “These claims have been around forever, and they have all been false, 100 percent wrong,” Manza said.

Of course, prognosticators（預(yù)言者, 占卜者） usually have an explanation for that, Christenfeld said.

“They might say it was a misinterpretation,” he said. “They got the date wrong. They might claim humanity acted in time to prevent the destruction. Or faith came to the rescue because people believed something bad was going to happen, it didn't have to happen.”

Intense physical exercise is not the only way to better health. Studies show that walking several times a week can lower risk of many diseases. They include heart disease, stroke, diabetes, bone loss, arthritis (關(guān)節(jié)炎), and depression. Walking also can help you lose weight.

Fast walking is good for the heart. It lowers the blood pressure. It raises the amount of good cholesterol（膽固醇）in the blood. Researchers say walking can sharply reduce the risk of suffering a heart attack.

Studies have also shown that walking for 30 minutes a day can delay and possibly prevent the development of diabetes. People who are overweight have an especially high risk to develop this disease.

Walking strengthens the muscles and builds up the bones that they are attached to. Studies show that walking could decrease the risk of developing osteoporosis （骨質(zhì)疏松癥）. Walking can also help ease the pain of arthritis in areas where bones are joined. This is because walking strengthens the muscles around the bones.

Experts say walking is one of the safest ways to exercise. There is a low risk of injuries. So it is good for people who are starting an exercise program for the first time and for older people.

A walking program is easy to start. You should wear loose clothes and good shoes. There are shoes that are designed especially for lots of walking.

How fast should you walk? For the best effect, doctors say you should walk fast enough to cause you to breathe hard. Yet you should still be able to talk. Let your arms move freely while you walk.

There are no rules to starting a walking program. You might walk short distances. Or you might walk up hills to strengthen your leg muscles. Health experts say you can gain the most from a walking program if you walk at about five kilogmeters an hour for 30 minutes a day. You should do this about five times a week.

A great life doesn’t happen by accident．A great life is the result of arranging wisely Your time，energy，thoughts，and hard work towards what you want your life to be．A great life is the result of using what you get in a creative and thoughtful way，instead of just what comes next．Make these”secrets”to fit your own needs and style，and start creating your own great life today!

    Simplify．People don’t interpret what simplify means in a correct way．It’s not a way to

remove work from your life．When you focus on simplifying your life，you free up energy and

time for the work that you enjoy and the purpose for which you are here．

  Effort．Creating a great life requires that you make some adjustments．It may mean

re．evaluating how you spend your time，or choosing to spend your money in a different way．

It may mean looking for new ways to spend your energy．Life will reward your best effort．

  Create priorities．It’s easy to spend your days just responding to the next thing that gets

your attention，instead of intentionally using the time，energy and money you have in a way

that’s important to you．Focus on getting rid of the obstacles that get in the way of you making

sure you are honoring your priorities．

  Reserves．A great life is the result of having reserves--reserves of things，time，space，

energy，money．Reserves are important because they reduce the fear of consequences，and that

allows you to make decisions that are based on what you really want instead of what the fear

decides for you．

  Eliminate distractions．Look around at someone’s life you admire．Ask them how they did

it．Find ways to free up your mental energy for things that are more important to you．

  Thoughts．A great life is the result of controlling your thoughts so that you accept and

allow for the possibility that it actually can happen to you! People who have specific goals

look for ways to achieve them．Believing there is a solution to the same old problems you

meet with year after year is really important to creating a life that you love．

    Start．There’s the old saying everyone’s familiar with”a journey of a thousand miles

begins with a single step．”There’s no better time to start than today．Today，right now，is the

right day to start to take a step in the direction of your heart’s desires．It’s what you do

TODAY that will make a difference in your life tomorrow．

After determining the target audience for a product or service, advertising agencies must select the appropriate media for the advertisement. We discuss here major types of media used in advertising.

Television

Television is an attractive medium for advertising because it delivers mass audiences to advertisers. When advertisers create a brand, for example, they want to impress consumers with the brand and its image. Television provides an ideal vehicle for this type of communication. But television is an expensive medium, and not all advertisers can afford to use it.

Newspapers

Newspapers are a less expensive advertising medium than television and provide a way for advertisers to communicate a longer, more detailed message to their audience than they can through television. Given new production techniques, newspapers are also a quick way of getting the message out. Newspapers are often the most important form of news for a local community, and they develop a high degree of loyalty (忠誠) from local readers.

Radio

Advertising on radio continues to grow. Advertisers are likely to use radio because it is a less expensive medium than television, which means advertisers can afford to repeat their ads often. Radio provides a way for advertisers to communicate with audience members at all times or the day. Consumers listen to radio on their way to school or work, at work, on the way home, and in the evening hours.

Magazines

Magazines are popular with advertisers because of the narrow market that they deliver. A broadcast medium such as network television attracts all types of audience members, but magazine audiences are more homogeneous (具有共同特點的). If you read Sports Illustrated, for example, you have much in common with the magazine’s other readers. Advertisers see magazines as an efficient way of reaching target audience members.

Out-of-home advertising

Out-of-home advertising, also called place-based advertising, has become an increasingly effective way of reaching consumers, who are more active than ever before. More consumers travel longer distances to and from work, which also makes out-of-home advertising effective.

Internet

As consumers become more comfortable with online shopping, Internet advertising will play a more prominent (顯著的) role in organizations’ advertising in the near future. The challenge to Internet advertisers is to create ads that audience members remember.

It is said that English speakers fall into three groups: those who have learnt it as a mother tongue, those who have learnt it as a second language through exposure(顯露) in a society where it is spoken, and those who are forced to use it for administrative(管理的), professional or educational purposes.

    This third group, along with the supremacy(至高地位) of English in the business world, has created a fast development in institutions offering English for business. However, the average business person, while happily accepting the challenge, does not have any idea how long the process may take.

   Duncan Ford, a specialist in language teaching theory, partly puts the blame on misleading publicity and says that you have to think in terms of hundreds of hours while people still think learning a language is a three-hour-a-week job.

   According to him, the key is lots of variety of the activities similar to the happiness of the class. The communicative way has replaced the old–fashioned note-taking method and for those people who think that a couple of hours with the latest CD-ROM is not to replace for English classes, they should think again. While seen as a useful back-up, they are not teacher replacement.

Learning English for a Special Purpose