1 Corinthians 13: 1 & 13

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

26 November 2009

Smoking takes away your life! Say “No!” to smoking! (7A Lin Sai-keung)

Just a decade ago, the problem of smoking was extremely serious in Hong Kong. There were many people smoking on the street, at home or wherever possible. Now, we are so glad to see that the number of smokers in Hong Kong is decreasing; but we are sad to find that the average age of smokers is getting younger. So what happened to our Hong Kong youngsters?

Before looking at the harmful effects and terrible consequences of smoking, we should first find out why teenagers are smoking at a young age.

To begin with, teenagers may think that smoking makes them look cool. This means teenagers underestimate the negative effects brought by smoking. Instead, they think smoking makes the boys more handsome and the girls more attractive. With a cigarette in their hands, they think they can attract more friends.

Second, teenagers mistakenly think that smoking helps them become mature. Teenagers are in a stage of change; sometimes they try to imitate adults and hope that they can become mature. Smoking is traditionally regarded as an adult behaviour. Thus, when teenagers smoke, they think they are more mature. But, we are sorry to say that this is totally wrong and they are harming themselves.

For most teenagers in Hong Kong, they have to go to school 5 days a week. After more than ten years, some of them may start to feel that going to school is boring and they want something else to do. They may become very vulnerable at this moment and if they have friends who are smokers they are very likely to become smokers too. After all, peer pressure is something difficult to cope with even to the tough kids. So, under the persuasion of their friends, teenagers start smoking regardless of their own health and young age. However, they do not know they are leading themselves to death.

There could be thousands of reasons to explain why teenagers smoke, but in fact, why shouldn’t teenagers, to be more accurate people in general, smoke?

First of all, smoking ruins our health and may even cause death. According to numerous researches carried out in different countries by various scientists, smoking can cause hundred kinds of diseases. Cigarettes contain toxic chemicals such as tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide. These chemicals increase your heart rate and blood pressure and cause fatal diseases such as lung cancer.

Moreover, smoking darkens people’s complexion easily. As aforementioned, cigarettes contain different types of toxic chemicals. Not only are these chemicals detrimental to human body, but they also worsen people’s complexion. When people start smoking, their teeth and fingernails become yellow very soon. In fact, people can tell you are a smoker if you have smoked for an extended period of time.

Last but not least, smoking affects other people. When people smoke, the surrounding air is polluted. It is true that everyone has the right to smoke, but on the contrary, everyone has the right to enjoy fresh air too. In fact, smokers are not popular among non-smokers. In order not to affect others, people should quit smoking and make the environment clean.

It is stupid to smoke. Smoking is harmful to your health and social relationship. Be a healthy and smart teen! Say “No!” to smoking!

“Technology is a hindrance, not a help, to students because they are wasting too much time on MSN, computer games and other new technology. (5E Cindy)

I firmly agree with the above statement. Nowadays, technology becomes more and more popular and it is not difficult to see that there are numerous technological products in our daily life! Although the uses of technology have improved our lives and we can communicate with the others by using, for instance, MSN. Nevertheless, there are many disadvantages occurred when we abuse the use of technology! I will examine each of them in detail.

First of all, our health will be harmed when we spend too much time on the use of computer and television. It is to everybody’s knowledge that there is radiation released from them. In turn, we will suffer from shortsightness and other vision illnesses easily. According to a suvery conducted by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, there are more than thirty six per cent of primary students in Hong Kong suffering from shortsightness. Comparing with other countries, Hong Kong is the a city having the problem to the most serious extent, in the world!

Second, students waste too much time on computer games and other electric game products like NDS and PSP. They cannot pay attention to their studies. Iin accordance with one interview which is underwent in June, more than eight per cent of Hong Kong students own electric game products and each of them has three on average. It is very common that students spend their past-time on computer games! If the students waste too much time and energy on playing computer games, how can they pay attention to the lessons in school energetically? How can they rivet on their studies without taking notice of those games? It is not hard to understand that students will be addicted on those computer games and ignore their studies!

Third, there are many violent and pornographic information on the internet. Although we can search for different types of information, there are still some unavoidable adverse effects. Inevitably, students will be affected inappropriately in terms of psychological development.

Last but not least, I think technology is a hindrance to students because most of them do not really know how to use technology in a proper way! In view of this, I think it is much necessary for students to restrain themselves when they are using the technology. Besides, they should schedule the times spent on the technology products.