One day，Mr.Arnold was teaching a lesson，and things were going as normally as ever.He was explaining the story of mankind to his pupils.He told them that，in the beginning，men were nomads(游牧人)；they never stayed in the same place for very long.Instead，they would travel about，here and there，in search of food，wherever it was to be found. And when the food ran out，they would move off somewhere else.

He taught them about the invention of farming and keeping animals.This was an important discovery，because by learning to cultivate(耕作)the land，and care for animals，mankind would always have food steadily available.It also meant that people could remain living in one place，and this made it easier to set about tasks that would take a long while to complete，like building towns，cities，and all that were in them.All the children listening were attracted by this story，until Lucy jumped up：

    “And if that was so important and improved everything so much，why are we nomads all over again，Mr.Arnold？”

    Mr.Arnold didnt know what to say. Lucy was a very intelligent girl.He knew that she lived with her parents in a house，so she must know that her family were not nomads；so what did she mean?

“We have all become nomads again，” continued Lucy.“The other day，outside the city，they were cutting the forest down. A while ago a fisherman told me how they fish.Its the same with everyone：when theres no more forest left, the foresters go elsewhere，and when the fish run out, the fishermen move on.Thats what the nomads did，isnt it？”

The teacher nodded,thoughtfully. Really,Lucy was right. Mankind had turned into nomads. Instead of looking after the land in a way that we could be sure it would keep supplying our needs，we kept developing it until the land was bare.And then off we would go to the next place！The class spent the rest of the afternoon talking about what they could do to show how to be more civilized.

    The next day everyone attended class wearing a green T-­shirt，with a message that said，“I am not a nomad！”

    And，from then on，they set about showing that indeed they were not.Every time they knew they needed something，they made sure that they would get it using care and control.If they needed wood or paper，they would make sure that they got the recycled kind.They ordered their fish from fish farms，making sure that the fish they received were not too young and too small.They only used animals that were well cared for，and brought up on farms.

    And so，from their little town，those children managed to give up being nomads again，just as prehistoric men had done so many thousands of years ago.

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    Every day, Americans throw away 500 million plastic straws, enough to circle the Earth twice. They are almost never recycled, and simply contribute to the great problem of plastic pollution; eight million tons of plastic is dumped into the oceans every year.

    Plastic straws are now the target of a growing movement to reduce their use. Possibly the first of such campaigns, Be Straw Free was started in 2011 by Milo Cress, who was only nine years old at the lime.

"I noticed that whenever I ordered a drink at a restaurant, it would usually come with a straw in it, and I don' I usually need a straw," he said. "This seemed like a huge waste. Straws are made of oil, a precious and finite resource. Is making single - use plastic straws, which will be used for a matter of minutes before being tossed away, really what we want to do with this resource?"

    Cress started asking restaurants in Burlington, Vermont, where he lived at the time, to stop providing straws automatically to customer and make them optional instead. Many agreed and his request made ripples (涟漪) nationwide. The restaurants that make the switch report a reduction in the number of straws they use between 50 and 80%.

    The anti - straw sentiment has crossed borders into the UK, where straws have been included in a government plan to ban ail plastic waste by 2042.

Last year large pub chain Wetherspoons announced that it would replace plastic straws with paper alternatives across 900 outlets. After the announcement, many smaller chains and pubs across the country followed suit. According to Wetherspoons CEO John Hutson, the move will save 70 million plastic straws a year and the reaction from patrons has been "very positive".

Offering alternatives or making plastic straws optional, rather than banning them completely, is a common trait among these campaigns. "There are many other viable alternatives to single - use plastic drinking straws that are less harmful to the environment, wildlife and humans," said Jackie Nunez, founder of The Last Plastic Straw.

    A child who has once been pleased with a tale likes, as a rule, to have it retold in almost the same words, but this should not lead parents to treat printed fairy stories as formal texts. It is always much better to tell a story than read it out of a book, and, if a parent can produce what, in the actual situation of the time and the child, is an improvement on the printed text, so much the better.

    A charge made against fairy tales is that they harm the child by frightening him or making him sad thinking. To prove the latter, one would have to show in a controlled experiment that children who have read fairy stories were more often sorry for cruelty than those who had not. As to fears, there are, I think, some cases of children being dangerously terrified by some fairy story. Often, however, this arises from the child having heard the story once. Familiarity with the story by repetition turns the pain of fear into the pleasure of a fear faced and mastered.

    There are also people who object to fairy stories on the grounds that they are not objectively true, that giants, witches, two - headed dragons, magic carpets, etc. do not exist; and that, instead of being fond of the strange side in fairy tales, the child should be taught to learn the reality by studying hi story. I find such people, I must say so peculiar that I do not know how to argue with them. If their case were sound, the world should be full of mad men attempting to fly from New York to Philadelphia on a stick or covering a telephone with kisses in the belief that it was their beloved girlfriend.

    No fairy story ever declared to be a description of the real world and no clever child has ever believed that it was.

    Donald Watson was a man who thought very much about the food he ate. He was born in Yorkshire, England, in September 1910. And he died in November 2005, at the age of 95. That is a very great age. Watson explained that it was because he never ate any food from animals.

    When he was a boy, Watson stayed on a farm. .He loved to see the animals. He said that they gave so much to people. And all the animals were so friendly. Then, one day, he saw a man killing a pig. He was very sad. From then on, Watson decided that he would never again eat meat. Twenty years later he decided that he wouldn't eat anything from animals, such as milk, cheese or eggs. He became vegan (素食主义者).

    Watson formed a group called "The Vegan Society". In its newspaper, The Vegan Society thought it was terrible and wrong to eat food from animals. At first, there were not many people who agreed with him. They thought it was crazy to do it. Most people thought it was too difficult and unhealthy. However, over time, more and more people began to agree with Watson and The Vegan Society.

    People become vegans for many reasons. Watson and his friend stopped eating because they loved animals. They believed that it was wrong to hurt another living thing.

    Now, people also become vegans for environmental reasons. Keeping animals takes a lot of resources(资源), including water and food. Also, in some places, people are cutting down trees to create more land for cows. By avoiding food from animals, vegans hope to protect these forest areas.

    Finally, just like Watson, some people believe that being a vegan is healthier. They believe that food from animals causes heart problems, a high body weight and many other health problems.

    Facebook was running my life.

    But what killed Facebook for me was when I posted a photo, and five minutes later my son asked me how many "likes" it had got. His question was a wake-up call.

    "Likes" are signs of acceptance and approval(赞同). I had forgotten that acceptance and approval need to come from within and had unknowingly set him a bad example.

    Before absorbed in Facebook, I spent a lot more time reading books and magazines. I checked in with friends through texts, emails and phone calls.

    To set a healthier example to my son, I deactivated my Facebook account.

    I'd been in the habit of checking Facebook many times a day, so I had to come up with some new habits. I carried a novel and a crossword puzzle book around with me. I rediscovered knitting. I started taking yoga classes.

    I started to remember a few things. My body is fine just the way it is. I have friends who will help me out when I'm in trouble, and I will help them out. I do my best to be a good mother, and our son is happy and healthy. We are very lucky to be able to afford two vacations a year.

    I stopped looking at the world through my cellphone. I felt completely present in the moment. The break left me feeling better about myself, my family, my home and my life.

    After a few weeks, I returned to Facebook. Now I look at the photos of my friends' kids growing up and treasure how social media allows me to keep in touch with family. I no longer have the desire to post updates often.

    It is not an addiction(上瘾) any more.