I have a friend who lives by a three-word philosophy: Seize the moment. Just possibly, she may be the wisest woman on this planet. Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because they haven't thought about it. Don't have it on their schedule, and didn't know it was coming or they are too strict to depart from their routine.

    I can't count the times I called my sister and said, “How about going to lunch in half an hour?” She would gasp and stammer(结结巴巴地说), “I can't. I have clothes on the line. My hair is dirty. I wish I had known it yesterday, I had a late breakfast, and it looks like rain.” And my personal favorite response: “It's just Monday.” She died a few years ago. We never did have lunch together. From then on, I've tried to be a little more flexible.

    Life has a way of going faster as we get older. The days get shorter, and the list of promises made to ourselves gets longer. One morning, we are awaken, and all have to show for our lives is repetition of “I'm going to”, “I plan on” and “Someday, when things are settled down a bit.”

    When anyone calls my “seize the moment” friend, she is open to adventure and available for trips. She keeps an open mind on new mind on new ideas. Her enthusiasm for life is contagious. You talk with her for a while, and you're ready to change your attitude to life.

    My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years. I love ice cream. The other day, I stopped the car and bought a triple-decker. If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would have died happy. Now go on and have a nice day. Do something you WANT to, not something on your SHOULD DO list.

    Although English is not as old as Chinese, it is spoken by many people around the world every day. English speakers are always creating new words, and we are often able to know where most words come from.

    Sometimes, however, no one may really know where a word comes from. Did you ever think about why hamburgers are called hamburgers, especially when they are not made with ham? About a hundred years ago, some men went to America from Europe. They came from a big city in Germany called Hamburger. They did not speak good English, but they ate good food. When some Americans saw them eating round pieces of beef, they asked the Germans what it was. The Germans did not understand the question and answered. “We came from Hamburger.” One of these Americans owned a restaurant, and had an idea. He cooked some round pieces of beef like those which the men from Hamburger ate. Then he put each between two pieces of bread and started selling them. Such bread came to be called “ hamburgers”.Today “hamburgers” are sold in many countries around the world.

    Whether this story is true or not, it is certainly is interesting. Knowing why any word has a certain meaning is interesting, too. The reason, for most English words, can be found in any large English dictionary.

    Adults are happy to tell their children that crusts (面包皮) will give them curly hair, carrots will help them see in the dark, and spinach will make them strong. Even though adults know it's not totally true, they think it's good for their children's health, a study had found.

    In a study about 31 per cent of adults said they once told their children the curly hair tale, and 36 per cent said they'd been told the same thing by their mother or father. Among the over-50s, almost half said they'd been promised curly hair if they ate their crusts. A quarter of the 2,000 adults questioned in the study told their children carrots would help them see in the dark. This could be true to some extent because of the high levels of vitamin A and beta-carotene in root vegetables.

    Another favorite among parents is that milk will make one strong. A third surveyed said their parents told them this, and about 29 per cent said they told their children the same thing. But while there is plenty of evidence to suggest milk is good for people's health, there are also a lot of scientific papers saying it isn't.

    Thanks to Popeye, spinach is also fed to children, along with the idea that it will make them strong. While there is also some truth in this one, scientists now believe it is not the iron, but the inorganic nitrates (无机硝酸盐) that improve physical power.

    One in seven of the surveyed admitted telling their little ones that runner beans will make them run faster, which is nothing more than wordplay and has no basis in science. Almost one in five adults were subjected to the same tale in childhood.

    Just over one in 10 parents told their children green food would turn them into a superhero, and a quarter admitted hiding vegetables in meals.

    Lyndsay Jones, spokesman for Persil Washing Up Liquid, said, "It's clear that the most persuasive stories about food are passed on from generation to generation. Our research shows that the ideas continue, and we tell our kids the same things our parents told us, even if they're not always entirely true."

    Crusts may not make your hair curly, but there's plenty of research that says crusts contain more of the goodness than the rest of a loaf. Hopefully, as a result of our Cook with Kids promise, more parents will be encouraged to spend time with their children in the kitchen and teach them the truth about food.

    I climbed Kilimanjaro with Lava Expeditions (探险队) during the rainy season.

    I flew to Nairobi in Kenya and spent several days there. At my hotel in Nairobi I met the rest of the group with whom I would spend the next week. We all travelled on the bus together for a 6-hour journey into Tanzania and then Arusha, a quiet town.

    After we arrived at our hotel in Arusha, we had dinner and a few drinks. Then we were introduced to more members including Taddeus Minja, the main guide, who was very experienced — climbing Kilimanjaro runs through the generations (代) of his family.

    The next day the Lava Expeditions members checked if we had the correct and enough clothing for our expedition on Kilimanjaro. Only one person needed to bring more clothes.

    After that we set off, walking in the rain through the beauty of the rainforest, all the way to the first camp. I was happy the next few days as the view was so wonderful and changed every day. I suffered a little during the trip and I felt so tired. But the members of Lava Expeditions provided me with lots of encouragement, which was one of the best memories. Finally we reached the top of Kilimanjaro in bright blue skies.

I felt excited about climbing Kilimanjaro and the feeling didn't change during my trip. Lava Expeditions looked after me so well that I was deeply thankful for their help.

    The discussion on renewable energy has been going on for at least a decade and people have relied on fossil fuels almost entirely for more than a century. However, the situation when fossil fuels were the most efficient and the cheapest source of energy has been left far in the past. Many countries such as Germany and Sweden have already made significant efforts to fix this situation, employing numerous power plants working on the renewable resources of energy. The most effective among these resources is geothermal（地热的）energy.

    Geothermal energy does not depend on the world's economic and political situation as strongly as fossil fuels do. Besides, extracting（提炼）fossil fuels adds to the price of energy produced from them. Therefore, geothermal energy is much cheaper than traditional ones, saving up to 80% of the costs over fossil fuels.

    Being a renewable resource, geothermal energy produces less waste and pollution than traditional energy sources. In geothermal systems, carbon dioxide makes up about 10% of air produced. Overall, in order to produce the electricity that can be used for one hour, the geothermal systems produce 0.1 pound of carbon dioxide and other harmful gases. For a comparison, a power plant producing from gas produces up to 2 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and those power plants that work on coal（煤）produce an astonishing 3.6 pounds of greenhouse gases.

    Low costs is another reason why using geothermal power plants should be the first choice for many countries. Geothermal heat systems require 25% to 50% less energy for work compared with the traditional systems for heating or cooling. Besides, geothermal equipment is less big: due to the very nature of geothermal energy, geothermal power plants have only a few moving parts, all of which can be easily sheltered inside a relatively small building. What's more, the life span of geothermal equipment is rather long. All these make geothermal power stations easy to build and keep.

Dear Mary,

How are you? I saw you posted some wonderful photos of the coastline near your hometown. You're really getting into your photography! Right now I'm taking a break to write you an email.

Remember you said you'd like to come over to the UK sometime this year? Well, I was thinking that this year you might like to come to the Edinburgh Festival with me in August. I've got an aunt with a flat in the city center who could put us up.

Do you know much about the festival? It's very famous — the biggest, most popular arts festival in the world! There are lots of things going on — art exhibitions, concerts of all kinds, modern dance, a book festival, etc. The thing it's most famous for is the newest and most exciting theatre. People come from all over the world and perform in their own languages.

In Scotland you have the best of both worlds: culture and wild land. After the festival, we could hire a car and go up to some of the islands off the west coast, like Skye. The weather can be changeable in August, but the landscape is beautiful, with empty beaches and rocky mountains. It's the perfect place for you to take photos. Afterwards, we could head back to the east coast and visit my friend Rob in St. Andrews. It's really pretty and Rob's enjoyable to be with. You'd get on well with him.

So, why don't you have a think about it and then get back to me? Take your time, there's no rush.

Speak to you soon.

Yours,

Sophie