Author: Fatema Akter Mary

Traffic jam refers to a serious road block when there is a long time of vehicles plying on the road. Now it has become a common scenario of roads and streets in the big towns and cities of our country. Several causes are responsible for this traffic jam. Firstly, most of the roads and streets are narrow and unplanned. Secondly, roads are insufficient in proportion to our population. Thirdly, a lot of unlicensed vehicles ply on the roads. Next, many drivers are not aware of the rules and regulations of driving. Many others are not willing to abide by the traffic rules. Again, many others are prone to reckless driving and overtaking tendency leading to unnecessary traffic jam on the roads. Furthermore, small vehicles like rickshaws, autorickshaws, private cars, hand carts etc also cause unbearable traffic jam. Above all, the number of traffic police is quite insufficient to handle it. Traffic jam causes a lot of problems killing our valuable times. The office-goers, students, patients and general people have to suffer a lot due to traffic jam. But this situation should be handled rigidly for the welfare and smooth movement of the people. (Words : 197)

Load shedding is the most talked about problem in our country. It is now a national crisis. There are many causes of load shedding. Inadequate generation of power supply is the main cause of load shedding. Unplanned distribution of electricity is also another cause. Moreover, illegal connections and artificial shortage of production are also responsible for load shedding. Furthermore, stealing electricity in the pretext of system loss is another cause of load shedding. Load shedding creates problems of far reaching consequences in the socio-economic development of the country. Due to load shedding, the entire life-style both domestic and industrial comes to a standstill. Domestic life becomes painful as the housewives grope in the dark in the kitchen. The running mills, factories and industries come to a standstill hampering normal productivity. The students cannot continue their studies and suffer a lot for load shedding. The patients suffer terribly and operations are stopped. The foods kept in the refrigerators get rotten due to load shedding. It is we the human beings who are responsible for load shedding which frustrates personal and national progress. (Words : 181)

Smoking is a very bad habit which is injurious to health. Inhaling the smoke of burnt tobacco is called smoking. The tobacco can be either burnt in a device called pipe or it can be wrapped and rolled in a piece of tobacco leaf paper. It causes many fatal diseases like cancer, heart attack, chronic bronchitis and many other respiratory diseases. One puff of cigarette smoke contains fifteen billion particles of injurious matters. Nicotine is the most detrimental thing in smoking. It hinders the natural flow of blood, reduces the supply of oxygen in the body of the smoker. A smoker runs the risk of being attacked with colon cancer and cardiac arrest at least 7 to 8 times higher than a non-smoker. Besides, smoking pollutes the air. It irritates our eyes, offends the nose and unsettles the mind. Despite its harmful effects, people both educated and illiterate are used to smoking cigarettes. So, we should raise consciousness among people to abstain them from smoking. (Words : 165)

Deforestation, a threat to our environment is caused from various reasons for which men are responsible. Deforestation means cutting down trees or destruction of trees at random. Our population is increasing at a high rate and this additional population requires more land for settlement and agricultural cultivation. We need more roads, bridges, educational institutions, hospitals and many other institutions to serve innumerable purposes. As a result, land for trees and forests are getting decreased day by day. People are also destroying trees for cooking food, making fires, melting pitch etc. The effect of deforestation on our environment is very serious. Deforestation causes increase of carbon dioxide, global warming and ecological imbalance. Besides, there occurs various natural calamities like flood, cyclone, tidal surge, sea level rise etc. All these terribly affect the wild life as well as our environment. So, we may say that it is men who are mostly responsible for deforestation. To save our environment we should stop cutting trees and plant more trees and the government should raise a concern among people. (Words : 174)

Environmental pollution has become a serious problem nowadays. With the advancement of civilization and industrial sectors, pollution has increased to a great extent. People are cutting trees for making brick, melting pitch etc. for road construction. As a result, air is being polluted. Again various motor vehicles, power houses, industries etc. emit smoke and pollute air. Water and soil are also polluted, Farmers use chemical fertilizers and insecticides in their fields. They are ultimately getting mixed with water of various sources. Besides, water vehicles and insanitary hanging latrines on rivers are also polluting water seriously. Abandoned garbage and human waste here and there cause odour pollution. Thus we see that all vital elements of our environment are losing their freshness and increasingly polluting our environment. The effect of environment pollution is very serious. It causes different diseases destroying the ecological balance. Now people are very concerned about the ever increasing environment pollution as a threat to our existence. (Words : 158)

Water, one of the ingredients of life, is being polluted by many ways. And it is men who are greatly responsible for water pollution. Man pollutes water by throwing different wastes into rivers, canals and ditches. Farmers use chemical fertilizers and insecticides in their fields to grow more food. When these chemicals and insecticides get mixed with rain water, it causes water pollution. Mills and factories throw away their waste materials and toxic wastes into the rivers and canals and cause water pollution. Steamers, launches and boats also pollute water by throwing oil, food and human waste into the rivers and canals. Moreover, unsanitary latrines in the countryside standing on the banks of ditches, canals and rivers also pollute water. Furthermore, Kutcha drains running into the canals and rivers cause water pollution. Clean water is safe for use but polluted water is harmful for man. Water pollution can be prevented in many ways. Various kinds of fatal diseases like diarrhoea, dysentery, cholera including water borne diseases are the effects of water pollution. Water pollution always threatens the existence of human lives on earth. (Words : 183)

Food adulteration means making food or drink less pure by adding or mixing another substance to it. Nowadays foods are often adulterated. In hotels and restaurants stale and rotten foods are mixed with fresh food and served to the customers. Fish and vegetables are adulterated by putting on them chemicals and other preservatives in order to make them look fresh. Bakery and confectionery products are also prepared by using toxic substances and thus they get adulterated. Junk food contains harmful chemicals. Even fruits, milk and beverages are adulterated. In fact all kinds of foods and food articles are adulterated by dishonest and greedy businessmen and shop keepers for quick and unearned profit. Adulterated foods are a serious health hazard. They cause many fatal diseases and even death. Public awareness should be created so that they become careful about buying foods and food articles. Besides, the criminals have to be identified and punished. The relevant department of the government should remain ever vigilant against food adulteration and gear up their activities. (Words : 170)

Drug addiction, a curse in modern age leads to an untimely miserable death of the addicts. Drug addiction is the habit of using non-prescribed medicine for exciting feelings. Opium, hemp, heroine, morphine, yaba, phensidyl etc. are the main drugs taken in our country. There are a great variety of reasons behind drug addiction. Frustration due to unemployment, political anarchy, lack of family ties and lack of love and affection is the main cause of drug addiction. Drugs create some kind of dreamlike feelings and the drug-takers forget everything for some moments and live in a world of hallucination. Drug addiction causes a lot of harms not only to the addicts but also to the society and nation as a whole. Drugs tell upon the human body terribly. The addicts feel drowsy and their nervous system gradually becomes weak causing damage to their brain which leads to decay and death. When the addicts fail to arrange money for buying drugs, they commit various kinds of social crimes and become dependent on others. Both the government and non-government agencies including the parents may cure the addicts and help them to live a happy and peaceful life in the society. (Words : 197)

A road accident is the most vulnerable, unexpected, intolerable incident in human life. Nowadays, Bangladesh becomes one of the most accident prone countries where generally, this incident happens mostly. It generally takes place on High Ways where all the vehicles are always in a hurry. Road accidents cause unexpected incidents but if we find the reasons of this, then, at first the ignorance of traffic rules is found. Always we ignore the traffic rules as if we loved to do it and it causes accident. Besides these, there are some other reasons. As roads are not wide and good, most of the vehicles are nearly damaged but they are on road, the drivers are not well trained and not sincere to their duty etc. Because of these above mentioned reasons, road accident is usually happened. These all are known to us but we do not care for it. Due to such accidents, people lose their lives. To solve the problem, some attempts should be taken by government and individuals. Traffic rules should be made strict. People must be made aware of traffic rules. (Words : 183)

Both football and cricket are outdoor games and give recreation and merriment to the spectators. Each game has its own characteristics and taste. Both of these games are held between two teams consisting of eleven players. But there are three extra players in football whereas only one player is extra in cricket. Football is a short time game. On the other hand, cricket is time consuming. Football is played with a football. On the contrary, cricket is played with a ball and bats. A football match is conducted by a referee in the middle of the field with two assistant referees in the side lines. On the other hand, a cricket match is run by two main umpires in the field and a third umpire known as the TV umpire. There is a goal keeper in a football match, whereas there is a wicket keeper in a cricket match. There are two goalposts at two opposite ends but there are two sets of stamps and bails. In spite of having some differences between the two games, their purposes are entertaining and teaching discipline, punctuality and tolerance. (Words : 187)