Topic 7. One reason or four-season climate.

There is no denying the fact that whether to choose a place that have the same weather all year long, or a place where the weather changes several times a year is a popular topic which is much talked about. Although it seems that normally we cannot tell which one outweigh the other between these two kinds of places, they deserve some close examination.

If three criteria were taken into account, I would prefer living in areas where the weather changes several times a year. There are no less than three advantages in this as rendered below.

First, varied weather or climate broadens the range of our pastimes. For example, we can go swimming in summer and go skiing in winter. If the place we live in has only hot weather all year long, like Singapore, most of us can never have a chance to go skiing.

Secondly, the change of climate gives us opportunities to wear many kinds of clothes. Some say it is a waste of money to buy clothes depending on seasons. However, wearing various clothes, looking at others' fashion, and feeling the change of seasons is very interesting for me.

Thirdly, changing of seasons is good for our health. When winter comes our body's metabolism slows down, and when summer comes it speeds up, so that our body can maintain a good rhythm. Also snows in the winter can kill a lot of bacteria and bad insects, so that in spring our chance of being infected with a disease such as flu is decreased and we can enjoy nice atmosphere and sceneries.

For these reasons, I prefer to live in areas that have several changes of weather. Only these three reasons can make a person draw the conclusion that living in areas that have season changes is better.

Topic 8. Is it right to ban smoking?

Smoking is highly injurious to health and its adverse effects on passive smokers is well established. I, therefore, strongly favor the ban imposed in many public places and office buildings in various countries.

Smoking in public places and office buildings irritates and causes discomfort to non-smokers. Moreover, the passive smokers are also highly susceptible to various diseases like cancer and other ailments based on the findings of various researches. As public places and office buildings are open to all the people especially office workers, no individual has any right to knowingly cause harm/injury to others health.

The health problems caused due to smoking in public places/offices would result in additional financial burden on the exchequer to divert its resources in medical facilities to combat such problems. These avoidable health problems of the employees due to such few irresponsible smokers would result in increased absenteeism and economic loss to the companies. It is a common experience that offenders do not bother to follow any civic rule unless heavy penalty or strong rule is imposed by civic authority.

However, it would be prudent to provide some limited confined places in the public areas and in the office buildings exclusively for the smokers. These rooms are required to be adequately provided with proper devices for removing obnoxious gases like C02, S02, CO, N02 etc from the smoke before being released to atmosphere. A nominal fee might be charged from the smokers to discourage their smoking habits.

Finally, I strongly support such rule to impose ban on smoking in public places in order to avoid detrimental effects on the health of common people knowingly.