2. A) Read the text about younger plastic surgery and pay special attention to its problems.

Surgeons at clinics specializing in plastic surgery are reporting increasingly younger patients, according to a report released recently by the National Association of Plastic Surgery in the United States. "They want to look like the people they see in films or the models they see in films or models they see in magazines. It's becoming an obsession," said one doctor in a beauty clinic in California. Last week we had a woman in here who, at 30, said she was looking too old and wanted a facelift. I told her to come back and see me in 15 years."

The average age for patients undergoing plastic surgery over the last year was 32, down from 34 just the year before. In England recently, a 15-year-old girl was in the news for announcing that her parents were going to pay for breast enlargements as her 16th birthday present.

Her mother said, "If it makes her happy and gives her more chance of success in life then what is the problem?" Though women still dominate the plastic surgery scene, men are growing increasingly concerned with their physical appearance and are doing something about it. According to the report, men now make up 39% of all surgeries performed - that's an increase of nearly 20% from last year. One man, who wished to remain anonymous, said he got his liposuction - removal of excess fat - after pressure from his wife. "She's a very athletic woman and, well, I enjoy a good steak." Liposuction tops the list of plastic surgery performed on men, followed by hair implants and breast reduction. For women the top order is still breast enlargement, followed by liposuction and facelifts.

b) Answer the following questions.

1. Why are younger people turning to plastic surgery? 2. Why did the doctor refuse plastic surgery to one patient? 3. Why is plastic surgery now more popular with men? 4. Why did the man have liposuction? 5. Do you think the number of men who want plastic surgery will eventually equal, or even surpass, the number of women? 6. Read again what the mother of the 15-year-old girl said. Do you agree with her?

3. A) Read the text and pay special attention on the key tips for avoiding a cold.

HOW TO AVOID A COLD

"You'll catch your death of cold" is a common way for English speaking people to express concern for someone who is cold or wet. However, no one nowadays seriously believes that someone with a common cold is really likely to die from it. [1-…].

In the early part of the 20th century, colds commonly led to complications that frequently ended in death. In those days of poorer public health, people really did fear the onset of a cold. [2-…]. The sensible thing was to "wrap up warm" and "wear a hat". [3-…]. This phrase has come to describe the state where a person loses their initial enthusiasm for something and wants to back out of a course of action they initially agreed to or found attractive. Getting cold feet used to be a precursor to going down with a cold, so the symptom perfectly describes the sense of unease and dread you feel when you know in your bones that things are just about to go horri­bly wrong. Interestingly, up until the 1950s or so, doctors agreed with folklore that put­ting your feet in a bowl of warm water was the best possible cure - preferably while holding your head over a pan of steaming water infused with menthol or lavender.

[4-…]. Getting cold in your extremities and allowing your nose to dry out really does place you at risk of developing a cold. Warming up in general and moistening your nose in particular, re­ally is the quickest and best way to reverse the process and reduce the risk.

While no longer life threatening, the common cold is one of the most prevalent ailments in the world. [5-…]. Children are even more prone to catching cold. Indeed, colds often start in schools where children are indoors in close contact with each other for much of the day.

[6-…]. Many people confuse the se­verer forms of cold with the flu - short for "influenza" - which is still a very serious illness indeed.[7-…].

Really bad outbreaks of flu can af­fect millions of people.[8-…]. At the end of the First World War the Spanish Influenza spread around the world and killed more somewhere between 20-40 million people, more than died in the war itself.

Because flus have the capability to be­come a pandemic, public health officials monitor flu outbreaks very carefully in­deed.

Despite much research over decades, there is no panacea or general cure-all for the common cold. [9-…]. If indeed, we describe something that we want to happen but think is very unlikely to happen as "like finding the cure for the common cold"! [10-…]. Here are the key tips for doing so:

1. Avoid getting cold in general and in your feet and face in particular.

2. Avoid contact with people who have a cold.

3. Always wash your hands with soap when you come into contact with someone with a cold.

4. Use clean drinking glasses, plates and cutlery.

5. Avoid crowded, heavily air conditioned envi­ronments (and especially long haul flights).

6. Drink at least two liters of water a day.

7. Rest well.

8. Eat fresh fruit rich in Vitamin C (such as oranges or kiwi fruit).

9. Exercise well.

10. Avoid cigarette smoke.

b) Return to the text again and fill in the missing sentences A-J. Do it in figures and letters.

A. So, if you cannot cure a cold, the best thing is to avoid one.

B. Most adults suffer from between two to four bouts of cold a year.

C. Called pandemics, these outbreaks can take place on a global scale.

D. Colds range from the very mild to the quite severe.

E. Flu viruses spread through population in seasonal epidemics.

F. Recent research now shows that this is really good health advice.

G. Such a cure seems unlikely to come about in the near future.

H. It was not always so.

I. Medical advice warned you to stop your feet and face – and especially your nose – from getting chilled or wet.

J. But even so, many people found themselves ‘getting cold feet’.