躲进小楼成一统，管他冬夏与春秋。

Which one is more important, health or wealth? I believe that the answer is as plain as the nose on your face, as long as your soul remains free from the overpowering, decadent influence of money, to which many of our contemporaries have fallen victim. Obviously, the presumption that money can buy everything would be fatally misleading, if health and time were not excluded. They, as the only two non-transactable commodities on the market, have invariably made disappointed those with stacks of cash to burn, when they flaunt their financial might and try to put back the clock of time and prolong their life ─ the former being irreversible, while the latter having its own shelf life. Although it is not possible yet to artificially extend life, improving its quality within that prescribed time frame is achievable. And lying at the very centre of that ambitious undertaking is none other than health, for "good health is the capital of revolution”. 

Generally, constitution, lifestyle, and diet are the three elements that can decide the goodness of one’s health. However, as constitution is genetically decided and an active lifestyle is often incompatible with the busy schedules of modern “social climbers”, diet appears the only safe passage out of this dilemma. As a matter of fact, a balanced diet alone is capable of tipping the scales and making up for the loss of a weak constitution and a sedentary lifestyle. Yet the fact has been repeatedly overlooked by the public, in spite of nutritionists’ near hysterical call for a change of eating habits. The reason is twofold ─ a) some sceptics mistrust the working principles behind the diet-based weight loss plan, contending that staying on diet not only shuts closed the door to gourmet food in their face, but also is not at all necessary; b) the heavy influence of TV commercials advertising snacks and fizzy drinks, such as chocolates, coke and crisps, has made it hard for the feeble-minded to free themselves of the fetters of unhealthy foods and follow a healthier eating plan.  

I am a good example myself that testifies to the magic power a healthy diet wields. In the five nightmarish years from 2002 to 2007, my body weight increased by almost 20 kilograms, turning me from a lean, energetic, youthful bloke to a fat, lethargic, dull lad with a protruding stomach and double chin. When my “weight boom” had reached its peak in ’06, I discovered that some tasks I used to be able to do with a snap of my fingers had become a mountainous challenge, such as tying the shoe laces and running up stairs. With uncontrolled growth of body weight also came strong feelings of low self-esteem, and I sub-consciously classified myself into the category of the middle-aged, though my actual age was merely 23. Truly, the tragic explosion of my body shape could be attributed to several factors, yet there is no denying that the No.1 culprit was the diet. For two to three years, I had a voracious appetite and could easily eat up a whole roast chicken at lunch and a big plate of beef at dinner with lots of sweets and snacks in between. (One of my favourites was KFC’s family feast.) As a consequence, my health grew very bad and I was haunted by colds and coughs in winter. Nevertheless, after I observed a balanced diet for four months in 2008, I had  successfully shed the 20 kilos I put on and fully restored my health. On the surface it seems a miracle, yet deep down it all can be explained from the scientific point of view. 

We have got to understand, first and foremost, how much energy our body needs in order to function well. For an average adult, the answer is 8700kj per day (approximately 2300 calories), as acknowledged universally. So if your gross energy intake exceeds what your body has consumed by the end of the day, the extra amount will be converted into fat and stored in your body. In the same vein, the recommended daily intakes of protein, fat and sugar are 50g, 70g and 90g, respectively. Vitamins and minor minerals have their role to play in a balanced diet as well, though most of them are gauged by the milligram.

The next question we shall address is: what kinds of foods should we eat to meet such needs? Today the availability of foodstuffs and their varieties are unprecedented. Mass production and marketing have made the majority of them easily affordable. No longer do we treat chocolates and cheese cakes as the luxuries of the privileged class. Meat and milk products have walked into every commoner’s pantry. With our living standards continuously increasing, what to eat has developed into a matter of personal choice. Ironically, it is the freedom of choice that has led to the onset of the obesity endemic, as sweets are preferred over fruit, chips over vegetables, pop over water, and fast food over home-cooked dinner.

Having briefly explored the two fundamental questions regarding weight loss, it is time to unveil the eating plans I have dutifully followed since August 2008. 

PLAN ONE  

I have a bowl of cereal every morning with 98% fat free soy milk, 2-3 strawberries and a pinch of nuts. For lunch I usually have a home-made sandwich (two slices of wholemeal bread, half a piece of turkey breast, some leaves of baby spinach, topped with a spoon of fat free mayonnaise sauce), a poached egg, and a stick of Lebanese cucumber. After I come back from jogging in the late afternoons, I have a banana. My dinner is made up of another home-made sandwich, a tin of tuna (sometimes salmon), and one medium-size tomato. Before I go to bed, I may have a few pieces of Vita-Weat biscuit (“with wholegrain goodness”) with Vegemite.

PLAN TWO (currently in use) 

After I wake up in the afternoons, I have a bowl of cereal with 98% fat free soy milk. About three hours later I have three stems of celery and a cup of coffee. At around 9:30 pm I have my LUNCH ─ two soft buns, a tin of salmon, a tin of four mixed beans and a cucumber. Then I eat some grapes. At two in the mornings I have my dinner ─ a bun and a large bowl of boiled sweet potato or pumpkin. 

The above-mentioned plans only serve as a broad guideline, and I constantly adjust them to accommodate my body’s changing needs. However, no matter what adjustment I make, the merits of the following five points are always respected.

1) Eat from as many food groups as you can and eat a variety of fruit and vegetables everyday (potatoes excluded). Do not limit yourself to only a few types of them.  

2) Stringently restrict your consumption of any sweets, fizzy drinks and fast food. They can destroy any diet plan. Bear in mind that a can of normal coke contains 40g of sugar (how many teaspoons of that?) and that one piece of chocolate-coated biscuit contains more than 300kj of energy.

3) Be wise when shopping. Read every food product’s nutrition information label carefully and compare it against your diet plan. Always choose natural products, those without food acids and additives. Besides, most big food brands make sugar-free and fat-free products. For instance, you can choose skim milk, sugar-free yoghourt and light butter to cut down on sugar and fat intakes. 

4) Acquire protein from fish and eggs, instead of from red meat. Protein is a very important element of nutrition and thus, to guarantee your daily intake of 50g of protein is crucial in maintaining good health. Fish, such as salmon, tuna and herring, are rich in protein and a good source of omega-3. In comparison, red meat, such as mutton and pork, though protein-laden, has too much fat that will inevitably find its way into your body. 

5) Space out your meals. Do not eat a lot at once. The size of our stomach is not unchangeable. If you gradually reduce the portions of your meals, your stomach will shrink accordingly. Remember that moderate eating habits expedite your weight loss efforts.  

In some respects, battling overweight bears resemblance to memorising English words. Both are difficult, time-consuming, and frustrating. Discernible results may not materialise until a few months later. However, the hard-earned fruit can be lost within a blink of the eye. A few chocolate bars and some fried chips are more than enough to offset what you have gained in a week. Any slip on your part may result in the collapse of the grandiose project, whose successful execution depends on will power, resolution and discipline.

Taking control of your body is the first step to taking control of your life. It is a struggle against yourself. You must not do what your brain dictates you to. You have to stay on alert 24/7 and resist the lures of any unhealthy food. If you can resolutely put back the likes of Snickers and Oreos to their shelves in spite of the loud protests of a watering mouth and an itching stomach, it is only a matter of time that you become the master of your life. 

Be the old fool who dares to move a mountain.

Words to English are bricks to a building. The more words you know, the higher and stronger you can build the building. Thanks to vastly improved construction skills and advanced machinery, we are now able to build a high-rise complex from scratch in a staggeringly short time frame. However, vocabulary learning remains in large part an unaltered practice that shows few signs of change. It continues to pose a daunting obstacle to today’s language learners as it did hundreds of years before, and stubbornly refuses to bow to high-technology.

Confronted with such a formidable opponent, how shall English language learners prepare themselves for the grim challenge? In this article, I tentatively brought forth a few personal opinions on the aforesaid subject matter, hoping they may be of aid to those in need of advice.

Again, I have to stress, unequivocally and emphatically, before I go on to discuss the technicalities of vocabulary learning, that there is NO, I repeat in case you missed the point, absolutely NO shortcut to success. The secret of knocking out your opponent rests with a right attitude plus a right plan. As simple as that. 

Sun Tzu, in his legendary book The Art of War, writes, ‘If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.’ So what kind of opponent are we dealing with here? What are his strengths and weaknesses?

In answer to the above questions, it is necessary to quote some statistics. It is estimated that the English language has over 100,000 words, including some that have become obsolete and dropped out from daily usage. On average, an educated native speaker of English commands an overall vocabulary (both active and passive) of 30,000; those specialising in literary writing, dubbed Men-of-Letters, can summon 50,000 words or more. Interestingly, it is said that Shakespeare only used 31, 534 words in all his works. In this regard, size does not matter that much.

How many words should we learn then? A good question, and the answer invariably depends on your goal. In general, 3000 words can enable you to read simple English stories, 6000-7000 newspapers and 10,000+ most of the original books. However, it is important to point out that being able to read a book does not always guarantee you enjoyment from the reading experience. For instance, one with a vocabulary of 5,000 may read Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. Yet in order to fully comprehend the contents and appreciate the author’s ingenuity and brilliance, I would say 10,000 is the minimum.

Individually speaking, the learning of an English word usually starts out with its spelling and meaning and finishes off with its pronunciation. Nevertheless, there are so many English words that do not abide by the common spelling and pronunciation rules, that have three or even four meanings, and that can be used as a noun and an adjective or as a verb and a noun at the same time. This kind of irregularity has greatly amplified the difficulty of the job, making it one of the most laborious nature.

Therefore, the opponent we are to face off against in the ring seems invincible. Is it really so? Not at all! He still has some fatal weaknesses that we can exploit to bring him down. In the following paragraphs, I will detail the ways as to how to overwhelm the hateful enemy.

Firstly, you have got to be mentally ready for the fight. Keep in mind that the battle will be long, will be exhausting, and will be savage. It cannot be finished in a month or even a year, at which time many of a weaker disposition choose to bail out of their own accord ─ a despicable act of cowardice. The battle is a test of will, fortitude and determination. If you dare to push headlong forward, the fruits of your continuous effort will, sooner or later, be borne; if you balk at the thought and let the idea of retreating cross your mind, even for as short as a second, you will be eliminated once for all from the competition.

Imagine there is a huge rock standing in your path. After exhausting your resources trying to bypass it and climb over it, the only sensible and plausible solution left is use a small chisel to chip away the giant rock. Though the contrast between a hand-held chisel and a towering rock appears ridiculous to the point of being comical, yet on second thoughts a sharp-pointed chisel would be the best tool a man can ask for in that dire situation. (You are much better off than the old foolish man who wanted to move a mountain with his bare hands.)

Once you are done with the mental preparations, I should say, with a congratulatory tone, that victory is beckoning you now, for what remains of the job is pretty much mechanical. Alas, far too many of our present-day vocabulary "experts” (quasi-experts, actually) spend far too much time bragging about this ground-breaking learning method and that epoch-making learning method, to sit down for half a day and scrupulously analyse the nature of the business. It is an irony, isn’t it?

Here I have listed the usual steps I follow when memorising English words myself. In brackets I added some annotations to expound my views.

· Determine how many words I need to memorise and spend some time to think why I need them. (You cannot go from 1000 to 10,000 at one go so it is always advisable for you to be crystal clear of your goal first.)

预知后事如何，请关注《跟沈老师学英语》从书，Ha, ha, ha  

According to the Collins Cobuild Dictionary (2006), home means “the house or place where someone lives” and house means “a building in which people live”. On the first glance, the definitions do not seem to differ from one another very much. Yet, upon some close investigation, I made the extraordinary discovery that any relation between the two words, as suggested by their authoritative dictionary definitions, stops sharply where it begins. The reason is simple, for in my opinion, home is a something that is as full of life as any living creature on earth, while house is nothing but a pile of bricks and boards that are cold and lifeless. No case can better demonstrate the vital yet subtle difference between home and house than mine.

My home is in Wuhu city, Anhui province, China, approximately 7,600 kilometres from where I live now. Presently, my home has the three members ― Dad, Mom, and my girlfriend. My rental house is located on Norris St, Mackay, Australia, a two-bedroom unit, conveniently located and moderately furnished, I being its sole tenant.

As I live in the house, shall I call it my home in Australia? Heaven forbid! If I made such a statement, it would be the most unforgivable blasphemy, more abominable than wilfully calling a deer a horse.

Every day when I return to my house in the early morning after a long day’s work, it is the four bare walls that welcome me back. No one enquires after me about my day. I walk into the scantily furnished living room, put down my bag on the small, N-hand table, and sit myself in one of the only two plastic chairs given me by a charity-minded co-worker whose doggy origin may be traced back to a waste dump. Angrily removing the tight boots, tossing them away without caring at all where I may find them later on, I glance around at the cold walls in the cold electric light, feeling the pang of solitude. Struggling on to my feet, I slowly wander into the utensil-less kitchen, drink some cold tap water and eat a few slices of cold bread preserved in the fridge, the king of coldness. Then I hastily brush my teeth and wipe my face in the bathroom, not relishing the company of such pitiful insects as spiders, before crawling into the bed that can barely accommodate one adult. Usually I can’t fall asleep until the day dawns at about 5:30 am. It is very likely that during the 12 hours I stay in the brick compound per day, I won’t hear a human voice, except my own when I’m on the phone or when, I’m ashamed to admit, I am talking to myself.

Reader, if you were me, would you venture to call such a bleak place your home? I trust your sound judgement and that you won’t. Now please allow me to present you my imaginary picture of a home.

When I climb to the last staircase landing, I would find my sweet girlfriend stand in the doorway, welcoming me home, for she is most familiar with my footstep. Though of a slender build, she would earnestly insist on carrying the bag for me and carefully put my boots in the closet, not leaving even one dust on the wood-panelled floor. Dad would call to me from the quiet study, “how was your day?” Mom would call out loud from the busy kitchen, "Everybody, wash your hands. Dinner is ready!” Upon hearing the calling, I would install myself comfortably in my favourite mahogany chair in front of the antique-looking table and initiate a casual conversation with Dad on some topics of common interest. While we are exchanging opinions and ideas in the liveliest manner, Mom and my girlfriend would lay down the best home-cooked dishes on the table. After the hearty meal, I would read today’s newspaper in my cosy bedroom and peep over the top of the paper to look at the TV, when an interesting news story is on. In the meantime, my doting girlfriend would peel an apple or banana, cut them into little pieces and use a toothpick to feed me as if I were a baby. When my body detects the first signal of sleepiness, I would fold up the newspaper and go have a shower. Of course, the clean clothes would have already been put on the stool besides the bathroom door by Mom. After a most refreshing hot shower, I would jump into the queen-size bed, taking up three-fourths of its space and leaving only half the rest of the space for my girlfriend, for it is my eccentric hobby bullying her.

It is safe to conclude from the above descriptions that a house, despite its grandeur, majesty and modernity, may still be an unwelcoming place of abode, while a home, shabby, small and ill-located as it appears, can be as comfortable and pleasant a place as the wealthiest emperor’s palace. Alas! My home and my house!