Instant Ab Flatteners
Achieving a toned, sexy tummy might seem like a pipe dream this time of year. Baggy sweaters abound, egg nog is served and Frosty the Snowman doesn't offer much in the way of flat-belly inspiration. But getting a sleek, sexy stomach is easier than you think. Spend just five minutes a day on toning your abs and you'll get an amazing middle.
Pike 90
Lie faceup; raise legs until perpendicular to floor, feet flexed. Lower right leg so it hovers 1 or 2 inches off floor and place hands lightly behind head. In this position, do 15 crunches, lifting chest toward ceiling and lowering. Switch legs and repeat.
Crunchy frog
Sit with knees bent, feet flat. Keeping legs together, raise feet several inches and bring knees toward chest. Wrap arms around knees without touching legs. Extend legs and stretch arms to sides, palms forward. Return to wrapped-arm position; repeat. Do 15 reps.
Tornado
Stand with feet hip-width apart, right leg in front of left, right foot turned out. Bend elbows and raise arms out to sides at shoulder level (like goalposts). In one motion, raise right knee to lowered right elbow. Return to start; switch sides and repeat to complete one rep. Do 15 reps.
Corkscrew
Lie faceup. Press legs together and raise them toward ceiling until they're at a 90-degree angle, with knees slightly bent and toes pointed. Raise butt and legs off floor using ab muscles; twist legs slightly to left. Repeat, twisting to right, for one rep. Do 15 reps.
Side arm balance
Start on floor on knees. Lean to left and place left hand on floor under shoulder; extend right arm up and to left, palm down. Straighten right legs out to right with foot on floor, resting on left knee. Hold for 5 breaths. Return to start; switch sides. Repeat twice per side.
Comic lessons to better English
ReplyDeleteBy HUSSAINI ABDUL KARIM
I lived with very strict grandparents when I was in school in the 1960s and would be caned if I read comics. But together with my slightly older uncles and aunts, we read them anyway, obtaining them mostly from the nearby British Royal Air Force base.
My favourites were about World War II, as well as comics such as Beano and Dandy; they cost five cents each and the newer ones were 20 cents. We would pool our daily allowance for school to buy them. We also had comics from The Straits Times, The Sunday Times, Utusan Melayu and Berita Harian which my late grandfather subscribed to.
We used to get about three or four comics every week and we hid them in a secret place and read them only when we were sure we would not be caught. Except for the comics in the Malay papers, they were all written in Queen’s English and we enjoyed reading them. We spent almost as much time reading comics as our text books. I never found out why my grandparents didn’t allow us to read comics.
When I was in secondary school, I often used ideas I got from reading comics for English compositions. We even created plays from Bugs Bunny, Huckleberry Hound, Peter Pan, Donald Duck, Dennis the Menace, Mickey Mouse, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and many others and we used dialogue from those comic strips in addition to dialogue we created with the help of our teachers.
Comics brought excitement to us and they played a part in raising our reading interest. I think they can do the same today and encourage children to read and learn. A good comic is one that educates and entertains, and learning should be fun.
Readers who wish to know about the benefits of educational comics can go to comiclife.com/education. They include inciting students with low interest in writing and helping organisation through storytelling and storyboarding. Sequencing in comic strips also promotes understanding.
Schools and tuition centres can be more creative by creating their own stories and dialogues or scripts with their students and making their own educational comics.
Today, all daily newspapers carry comic strips. They are all written in excellent British or American English. Not all of them are educational; nevertheless, they provide an exciting and entertaining read.
I do not recommend children of school-going age and students to read war comics about World War II and cowboys (Western) as these comics do not use proper English. Popeye The Sailorman is also not recommended as the English used is not acceptable for people learning English. Comics for pupils and students must not contain profanity or obscene pictures and must not be sexually suggestive.
The standard of English used in all the comics that appear in The Star, which varies from very basic to very advance, is acceptable. When reading Calvin And Hobbes by Bill Watterson, for example, one may need a dictionary to understand complicated words, which are frequently used. In the “Word Power” section of the popular magazine, Reader’s Digest, words taken from this comic strip are sometimes used to test the vocabulary of readers. That shows how sophisticated comics can be.
When reading alone, one normally reads silently but I would recommend comics to be read together by all the members of the family. They should be read aloud and the best time to do this is after dinner whilst having coffee and dessert or snacks. Act them out whenever possible and explain the meanings of the words and the story line to the young ones so that they will enjoy reading the comics even more.
Read comics that correspond to the age of your children and gradually move to the higher levels as they grow older.