¹If you’ve been to the movie theater recently, then you know that superhero movies are very popular.  ²Millions of people go to see not only the most famous superheroes like Spiderman or Superman but also the lesser known ones that not many people have heard of like Deadpool or Ant Man.  ³So
why are superheroes so popular with movie goers?  ⁴The answer is rather simple.  ⁵We want to believe that there is a hero out there who will care for us and never fail us, no matter what.  ⁶To imagine that such a
person exists is comforting.  ⁷What’s more, there are so many types of superheroes
that everyone can identify with at least one of them.  ⁸In real life, we sometimes treat athletes and celebrities like superheroes because they are the closest thing to “perfect” human beings.  ⁹The difference, however, is that these people eventually disappoint us and show us that they have faults just like everyone else.  ¹⁰But superheroes, such as those who come to life thanks to Hollywood movies, can make the world seem a safer place, when humans
can’t or won’t.

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¹For thousands of years, many people around the world have enjoyed relaxing in saunas.  ²Recently, scientific research has shown that besides making people feel good, saunas benefit people in many ways.  ³First of all, when people sit in saunas and sweat heavily, unhealthy substances are removed from the body.  ⁴Everyone absorbs these substances from their environment, and the sweat produced by taking saunas is a great way to detox.  ⁵In addition, saunas help fight illness.  ⁶As the body is exposed to the heat of the saunas, it produces more white blood cells, which fight disease.  ⁷Furthermore, saunas help to improve the condition of the heart.  ⁸Another important benefit of saunas is that they help people to sleep more deeply.  ⁹The heat from saunas also helps the body to burn calories because the body uses up energy when it sweats.  ¹⁰Taking a sauna also helps to promote mental health as many people report that their stress level goes down after taking a sauna.  ¹¹This is because the heat from the sauna relaxes the body’s muscles and speeds up the blood flow.  ¹²In addition, the body produces chemicals that make us feel good and which are normally released through physical exercise.

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¹Afternoons at work may never be the same.  ²A new trend aimed at improving worker efficiency has started to become more popular in Japan: power napping.  ³Power naps ― a short sleep ― have started to become accepted practice at some Japanese companies.  ⁴For them, napping at work is
no longer viewed as a sign of laziness, but as an essential means of maintaining attention and performance at work.  ⁵A large body of research has found that naps help to keep performance levels high and prevent mistakes, particularly in the afternoon when many people feel tired.  ⁶When workers feel sleepy, work performance declines.  ⁷To prevent this from happening, some companies have created special napping rooms where employees can take a short nap.  ⁸This could be especially useful for Japan since the average time that Japanese sleep is among the shortest in the world.
The Japan Times. June 7, 2014

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¹Many people love chocolate, but not everyone knows its origins.  ²Chocolate is made from beans that come from the cocoa tree, which is native to Central America.  ³Initially, people drank chocolate instead of eating it.  ⁴People in Central America drank chocolate as early as 1,500 BC.  ⁵After the Spanish conquered Central America in the 1500s, they brought cocoa beans back to Spain. ⁶In the 17th century, chocolate spread from Spain to the rest of Europe.  ⁷In London, a shop where you could buy a drink of chocolate opened in 1657.  ⁸In the late 17th century, people began to add milk to the chocolate drinks to improve the taste.  ⁹Then in 1795 Joseph Fry began using a steam engine to grind cocoa beans, which allowed for the mass production of chocolate.  ¹⁰It was only later on, from the 19th century, that chocolate candy and chocolate bars were introduced to the world.

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¹Second only to oil, coffee is the most valuable legally commodity in the world.  ²We love it, we rely on it, and we drink it in large quantities.  ³It is estimated that 2.25 billion cups of coffee are consumed each day worldwide.  ⁴New Yorkers are said to drink seven times more coffee than other US cities, which is why it may seem like there is a Starbucks on every corner of Manhattan.  ⁵The famous French writer and philosopher Voltaire was rumored to have drunk 40 to 50 cups per day.  ⁶Drinking coffee is a daily ritual for millions around the globe.
⁷In the 1960s, a taste for different types of coffee started to grow, inspiring the opening of the first Starbucks coffee shop in 1971.  ⁸Today, the popularity of coffee continues to grow with more small, independently-owned cafes using locally–roasted beans.  ⁹From a simple cup of black coffee to an order from Starbucks, each coffee drinker has a favorite way of enjoying this wonder drink.

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