Topic 28 Has the media paid too much attention to celebrities?

Some people feel that television, newspapers, magazines, and other media pay too much attention to the personal lives of famous people such as public figures and celebrities, although others have different opinion about that. As far as I am concerned, I fully agree with that. Safe to say, more than 70% lights are focused on those famous people and all kinds of stars. This is because common people like to watch, to know about and to become famous guys.

Let us look at the television first, when you turn on the television, there are more than 60 channels in United States, but almost all channels are either talking about celebrities, movie stars, or showing some TV soap programs in which some movie star is in it. There are daily programs such as "E-Talk", "Access Hollywood", and "Entertainment Tonight" which concentrate on lives of famous stars. You can tell from their names. Not to mention there are a lot of awards such as Oscar award, Emmy award, Gold Globe, and so on. They are all about famous people. For the program of talking show, such as the Opera Show, or the Larry King Show, most guests that are invited to these programs are celebrities or politicians. And people love to watch that.

As for magazines or newspapers, it is the same situation. The first front page, second page and Headline are very often about famous people in different areas, even sometimes discussing the private life of famous people. It looks like if there are no celebrity photos on the front page, the subscription will decrease. People love to read stories about these stars or celebrities.

Especially, there are so many photographers who want to take pictures of these famous people's private life. They do not care how this will invade those people's privacy, because they know these photos of celebrities may help them get rich. Think about how Princess Diana died in 1997. Nobody can say that it has nothing to do with those paparazzis. The fact that people love to know everything about Dianna, one of the most famous celebrities in the world, killed the princess.

In conclusion, TV, newspapers and magazines need these celebrities to attract people's eyeballs. Otherwise, they cannot survive. And the average people seem to enjoy these personal lives of famous people or celebrities. So it is quite normal for media to pay so much attention to these big guys in the world.

Topic 29 Has human harmed the Earth or made it a better place?

The Earth 'our home' is a planet with a wide range of inhabitants. This diversity helps to maintain the balance of the life cycle on the Earth. We humans have a key role to play in maintaining this ecological system. But today, even amidst the huge cry from environmentalists, we seldom recognize the importance of the environment. Some of the changes on the Earth like deforestation are a result of industrial and automobile emissions and nuclear activities. They bear testimony to our negligence [neɡlɪdʒəns] towards the environment. (На них лежит свидетельство нашей небрежности по отношению к окружающей среде)

Right from our school education we have been taught about the key role played by the forests in maintaining the ecological balance. Forests attribute to release of oxygen and absorb the toxic carbon dioxide exhaled by the humans. Thus the forests act as the natural recycling agents balancing the life on this planet. Deforestation has been taking place for many reasons like manufacture of paper from wood pulp and timber (из целлюлозы и древесины), and for inhabitation by humans. If this trend continues there is no doubt that in the years to come the Earth will become a dry planet.

If deforestation is plundering (разграблять) the gift of God, the pollution of environment by automobile and nuclear emissions is a man made menace (угроза). Metropolitan cities have been so congested (так переполненны) that we are getting used to everyday traffic snarls (пробки, спутывать, брюзжать). Though there has been a worldwide awareness in controlling the automobile emissions in terms of imposing the emission norms on the automobile manufacturers, there is still much left to be done. One step could be to impose the law, to get the vehicle owners check their vehicles for emission norms, once in six months and obtain a valid test certificate.

No one can deny the fact that nuclear emissions are more vulnerable (уязвимый, ранимый) to damage the environment than any thing else. But we are always at the threat of a nuke war, despite the strong efforts of the international organizations like UN. It is a pity that most of the governing nations of the Un are the major threats with nuclear weapons.

Not but not least, the knowledge and the responsibility of safeguarding the environment is seldom seen in the individuals. The fact that all of us have been taught about the importance of environment in our education system makes no difference. The governments should organize more effective campaigns to educate everyone across all demographic levels. Only a socially responsible citizen can make a difference towards the environment our descendents have to live in.

Though I feel that with all above references (ссылки, рекомендации), we humans damage the earth, I feel that I have dealt superficially some of the solutions that help to make the earth a better place to live. Let us hope that in the coming years future generations become socially responsible in safeguarding the earth. After all, we have just one planet (right now!) to live in.