I received a call today asking if I would be willing to bring food to a family in need. The mother was having a major operation and would be lying down for several weeks. Of course, I responded with an immediate “Yes!”. As I planned the meal in my head, I reflected on how many times over the years I had been asked to prepare food. I have done so countless times with a very open heart.

    But the truly amazing thing is that I have received double over the course of my life. When my mother passed away, our house was filled with fresh dinners for weeks. A woman from the church of our community stopped by each evening with some food. The gift of food was her small way of trying to ease our pain.

    Later in my life, when I was on bed rest during my pregnancy with twins, women of the church again stepped in to help. They arranged babysitting for my two-year-old daughter, and brought lovely dinners to our house. Even when I was put in the hospital, my husband would bring cooked meals to my hospital room. How we relied on these dinners to feed my tired husband and young daughter.

    Food is all about comfort. It feeds our bodies, but it can also feed our souls. When you hear people talking about their favorite holidays, it usually includes their feelings connected with sharing food. I know that I will have many more opportunities in my lifetime to prepare food for others. It is truly a gift I want to prepare and deliver to someone in need.

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    Memory, they say, is a matter of practice and exercise. If you have the wish and really made a conscious（自觉的）effort, then you can quite easily improve your ability to remember things. But even if you are successful, there are times when your memory seems to play tricks on you.

    Sometimes you remember things that really did not happen. One morning last week, for example, I got up and found that I had left the front door unlocked all night, yet I clearly remember locking it carefully the night before.

    Memory “trick” work the other way as well. Once in a while you remember not doing something, and then find out that you did. One day last month, for example, I was sitting in a barber（理发师）shop waiting for my turn to get a haircut, and suddenly I realized that I had got a haircut two days before at the barber shop across the street from my office.

    We always seem to find something funny and amusing（有趣的）in incidents caused by people's forgetfulness or absent-mindedness. Stories about absent-minded professors have been told for years, and we never got tired of hearing new ones. Unfortunately, however, absent-mindedness is not always funny. There are times when “trick” of our memory can cause us great trouble.

     The World Meat Free Day for 2017 falls on 12, June, but what would actually happen if the whole world suddenly went vegetarian(素食的) permanently?

     If vegetarianism were accepted by everyone by 2050, the world would have about seven million fewer deaths every year. No meat would lower the chances of some diseases or even some cancers and so save the world 2-3% global GDP in medical bills. Food-related emissions would drop by around 60%. This would be due to getting rid of red meat which come from methane (甲烷) producing livestock (家畜) — from people's diets. Turning former pastures (牧场) into native habitats and forests would slow climate change and bring back lost biodiversity, including some animals which were previously pushed out or killed in order to keep cattle.

    However, farmers in the developing world could really suffer. Arid and semi-arid lands can only be used to raise animals as there's no or little water in these places, such as the Sahel land strip in Africa next to the Sahara; nomadic (游牧的) groups that keep livestock there would be forced to settle permanently and lose their cultural identities if there were no more meat. Losing meat also means that we also lose traditions. There's no more Christmas turkey. We would need to replace meat with nutritional substitutes, in particular for the world's estimated two billion-plus unhealthy or weak people for lack of nutrients. Animal products contain more nutrients per calorie than staples like grains and rice.

    Everybody currently engaged in the livestock industry would need to be retrained for a new career. This could be in agriculture, reforestation or producing bioenergy. Failing to provide career alternatives could lead to mass unemployment and social problems, particularly in traditionally rural communities.

    I was never very neat, while my roommate Kate was extremely organized. Each of her objects had its place, but mine always hid somewhere. She even labeled（贴标签）everything. I always looked for everything. Over time, Kate got neater and I got messier. She would push my dirty clothing over, and I would lay my books on her tidy desk. We both got tired of each other.

    War broke out one evening. Kate came into the room. Soon, I heard her screaming. “Take your shoes away! Why under my bed!” Deafened, I saw my shoes flying at me. I jumped to my feet and started yelling. She yelled back louder.

    The room was filled with anger. We could not have stayed together for a single minute but for a phone call. Kate answered it. From her end of the conversation, I could tell right away her grandma was seriously ill. When she hung up, she quickly crawled（爬）under her covers, sobbing.

    Obviously, that was not something she should not go through alone. All of a sudden, a warm feeling of sympathy rose up in my heart.

    Slowly, I collected the pencils, took back the books, made my bed, cleaned the socks and swept the floor, even on her side. I got so into my work that I even didn't notice Kate had sat up. She was watching, her tears dried and her expression one of disbelief. Then, she reached out her hands to grasp mine. I looked up into her eyes. She smiled at me, “Thanks.”

    Kate and I stayed roommates for the rest of the year. We didn't always agree, but we learned the key to living together: giving in, cleaning up and holding on.

    Several years ago, Masaru Ibuka, chairman of Sony, was at a company planning a meeting. Suddenly he had a brilliant idea. He stopped the meeting and asked everyone present what would happen if Sony removed the recording function and speaker and sold headphones with a tape player instead. Almost everyone thought he was crazy. Still, Ibuka kept thinking about his idea and worked at improving it. The result, of course, turned out to be the wildly successful Sony Walkman.

    Good ideas often start with a seemingly silly question. Bill Bowerman was making breakfast one day. As he stood there making waffles (华夫饼干)for his son, he wondered what would happen if he poured rubber into his waffle iron. Later, he tried it and the result looked something like the bottom of most sports shoes we see today. Still, when he took this idea to several existing shoe companies, he was laughed at. In fact, every single company turned him down. Though rather discouraged, Bowerman insisted and went on to form his own company, making NIKE athletic shoes.

    Sometimes good ideas grow out of frustration .When Fred Smith was a student at Yale University, he had some paperwork that he needed to have delivered across the country the next day. Smith was amazed to find out that overnight delivery was impossible. He sat for a long while, lost in thought. Why couldn't there be a reliable overnight mail delivery service? He decided to design one. Smith did just that and turned his design into a class project.  His business professor gave him only a C for his efforts. However, Smith was not through. He improved the idea in that class project and finally turned it into one of the first and most successful overnight mail service in the world — FedEx.

    We know that each of these ideas led to a very successful product or service that has changed the way many of us live. The best questions are usually open-ended and are often silly, Children aren't afraid to ask such questions, but adults frequently are. Think how different the world might be if people never asked "silly" questions!

    I have been passionate about sewing and fashion design since I was 12. Two years ago, I designed and made a set of outfits from recyclable materials for a charity fashion show. Through this highly meaningful and profound experience, I became sensitized to the importance of protecting and preserving our environment when designing and making fashion items, resulting in my founding an organization to promote eco-friendly design and fashion.

    My interest has led me to research areas of fashion that have environmental implications. For example, some popular clothing stores have announced merchandizing policies designed to improve the environment. For those of us who are eco-conscious, it is incumbent upon us to evaluate whether such policies are just a marketing ploy, or represent genuine efforts to protect our environment.

    Three chain-stores, H&M, Urban Outfitters and Forever 21, have been promoting "green" items. After I examined their products, I have concluded that H&M and Urban Outfitters are truly helping the environment with their efforts, while Forever 21 seems to be using the 'go green' trend as a way to sell more products, rather than genuinely help the environment.

    Of these three stores, H&M has the most extensive eco-fashion plans. It is already well on its way to implementing its plans by increasingly blending organic cotton into their garments, as well as putting fully organic cotton items on the market. The store also belongs to the Organic Exchange Organization, which endorses growth of organic cotton. To reduce the substantial harm from non-organic cotton production, H&M is involved with the Better Cotton Initiative. Mindful of the adverse effects of climate change, the store aims to minimize transportation and energy usage. H&M labels their eco-friendly products with an official symbol, the Flower, to represent a production system that is less harmful than most traditional processes. Because of these actions and policies, H&M is already well on its way to making a difference on the environment.

    With its Urban Renewal brand, Urban Outfitter takes a different approach from H&M in promoting eco-friendly fashion. The brand features women's apparel made from strictly environmentally-friendly sources, such as vintage, dead stock, or surplus clothing. Urban Renewal produces fashionable garments, and embraces being eco-friendly through recycling.

    Unlike the other two stores above, Forever 21's eco-fashion efforts fall short; a cynic would say their message is downright misleading. It promotes the "'green" image, and yet many of their supposed eco-friendly products do not help the environment. For example, it sells a "Think Green Tote" that, according to the site, is meant "to send an environmentally friendly message". However, it is made of 100% non-organic cotton which is one of the most damaging fabrics to the environment, mostly because it requires greater chemical intervention compared to organic cotton. Also, the "I Love My Planet Tote" is supposed to "make a positive statement," but is also made of 100% cotton that is not organic. The only tote that is environmentally-friendly is the "H81 Organic Cotton Tote" from Forever 21's Heritage brand, made from 100% organic cotton. Now that Forever 21 has portrayed itself as being "green," it should start "walking the walk."