Everyone has their favorite food. Some might love chocolate. Some might love potato chips.

Think about your favorite food. Have you ever wondered why your favorite food tastes so good? The answer is about your tongue (舌头) and your nose.

There are some taste buds (味蕾) on your tongue. They give you the sense of taste. How do the taste buds work? In fact, they have many tiny hairs on them. These tiny hairs send messages to your brain about the tastes of different food. In this way, you know whether it is sweet, sour, bitter or salty.

An average person has about 10, 000 taste buds. They keep working all the time when we enjoy our food. The taste buds don’t always stay the same. They are replaced every two weeks or so. However, as a person gets older, some of these taste buds don’t get replaced.

An older person may only have 5, 000 working taste buds. That’s why some food may taste stronger for you than they do for an older person.

Besides your tongue, your nose also helps you learn about the taste of food. Sometimes, strong smells can even confuse (使困惑) your sense of taste. Try holding an onion under your nose while eating an apple. What do you taste?

So the next time you enjoy salty pizza and sweet ice cream, thank your tongue and your nose. Without them, you won’t have any sense of taste at all! Without the sense of taste, life will be boring.

The eyes are the windows of the soul(心灵). Having a pair of bright, clear eyes is very important so we should protect our eyes throughout our lives.

【小题1】 Don't read while lying down or walking. Relax after every hour of reading.

Keep a distance from the TV set when you watch TV and give your eyes a rest every 30 minutes.

Don't stare at(盯着看) the sun or try to read in the darkness. 【小题2】 This can damage your eyes easily.

Get your eyes checked often. Not many people have this habit, but it is necessary. If you feel that there is something wrong with your eyes, get them checked quickly. 【小题3】

【小题4】 You can close your eyes for a few seconds or look into the distance for one or two minutes. A small break will relax your eyes and help to stop you from getting eye problems.

Be careful when you choose your glasses. 【小题5】 Make sure your glasses are right for you. If they don't feel right, get your glasses changed.

I was 9 years old when I found out my father was ill. It was 1944, but I can remember my mother's words as if it were yesterday: "Kerrel, I don't want you to take food from your father, because he has AIDS. Be very careful when you are around him."

AIDS wasn't something we talked about in my country when I was growing up. From then on, I knew that this would be a family secret. My parents were not together anymore, and my dad lived alone. For a while, he could take care of himself. But when I was 12, his condition worsened. My father's other children lived far away, so it fell to me to look after him.

We couldn't afford all the necessary medication for him, and because Dad was unable to work, I had no money for school supplies and often couldn't even buy food for dinner. I would sit in class feeling completely lost, the teacher's words muffled as I tried to figure out how I was going to manage. I did not share my burden (负担) with anyone. I had seen how people reacted to AIDS. Kids laughed at classmates who had parents with the disease. And even adults could be cruel. When my father was moved to the hospital, the nurses would leave his food on the bedside table even though he was too weak to feed himself.

I had known that he was going to die, but after so many years of keeping his condition a secret. I was completely unprepared when he reached his final days. Sad and hopeless, I called a woman at the nonprofit (非盈利的) National AIDS Support. That day, she kept me on the phone for hours. I was so lucky to find someone who cared. She saved my life.

I was 15 when my father died. He took his secret away with him, having never spoken about AIDS to anyone, even me. He didn't want to call attention to AIDS. I do.