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At the party I attended the other night, three out of the five people were smokers. One of the topics was why they had started smoking. One person said that he went to a barber shop run by a man in his 50s when he was growing up. The barber offered cigarettes to customers older than 20. As soon as he finished high school, the barber asked if he was going to college and offered him a cigarette. Another person said that he was working part-time at a construction site when he was in college. The people around him were regular construction workers, and they forced him to smoke.

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Some athletes just keep on going, and Miura Kazuyoshi is one of them. He has just signed a contract to play another year of professional soccer. That makes him the oldest professional soccer player in history, not just in Japan but in the whole world. He went to Brazil when he was 15 years old because he wanted to play soccer, and he made his debut at the age of 19. He was already playing professional soccer when the J League started. He has been playing professionally for more than 30 years! It must be rough playing with so many young players, but I hope he has a great season. (by Prof. Douglas Jarrell)
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