Bars are very important in providing a place where people can meet and make friends. People who enjoy a drink in a local bar are happier and have more friends. They are more likely to be engaged in conversations in small community pubs, and social skills improve after a drink.

    Professor Robin Dunbar of Oxford University said, “Friendship and communities are probably the two most important factors influencing our health and well-being. Making and maintaining friendships is something that has to be done in the real world. The digital world is simply no substitute(n.替代物). Given the increasing tendency for our social life to be on the Internet rather than in real life, having relaxed, accessible places where people can meet old friends and make new ones becomes even more necessary.”

    Tim Page, chief executive of CAMRA, said, “Bars offer a social environment to enjoy a drink with friends in a responsible community setting. The role of community bars in ensuring well-being cannot be overstated. For that reason, we all  need to do what we can to ensure that everyone has a ‘local' near to where they live or work.”

    Bars have long been part of British society and have played a key role in British social life since the 16th century. Bars came to represent the heart and soul of a community, providing both a place of entertainment and an engine for community bonding. In a world before the arrival of the motor car, the bar provided a venue in which people could get friendships and a sense of community.

    But the closing decades of the 20th century witnessed major changes in both the style of bars (for example, themed bars) and their numbers. As of 2015, the number of bars declines sharply, with bars continuing to close at an average rate of 29 a week.

    Some people will do just about anything to save money. And I am one of them. Take my family's last vacation. It was my six-year-old son's winter break from school, and we were heading home from Fort Lauderdale after a week long trip. The flight was overbooked, and Delta, the airline, offered us $400 per person in credits to give up our seats and leave the next day. I had meetings in New York. So I had to get back. But that didn't mean my husband and my son couldn't stay. I took my nine-month-old and took off for home.

    The next day, my husband and son were offered more credits to take an even later flight. Yes, I encouraged—okay, ordered—them to wait at the airport, to “earn” more Delta Dollars. Our total take: $1,600. Not bad, huh?

    Now some people may think I'm a bad mother and not such a great wife either. But as a big-time bargain hunter, I know the value of a dollar. And these days, a good deal is something few of us can afford to pass up.

    I've made a living looking for the best deals and exposing (揭露) the worst tricks. I have been the consumer reporter of NBC's Today show for over a decade. I have written a couple of books including one titled Tricks of the Trade: A Consumer Survival Guide. And I really do what I believe in.

    I tell you this because there is no shame in getting your money's worth, I'm also tightfisted when it comes to shoes, clothes for my children, and expensive restaurants. But I wouldn't hesitate to spend on a good haircut. It keeps its shape longer, and it's the first thing people notice. And I will also spend on a classic piece of furniture. Quality lasts.

    Suddenly another thought went through Kate's mind like an electric shock. An express train was due to go past about thirty minutes later. If it were not stopped, that long train, full of passengers, would fall into the stream. “Someone must go to the station and warn the station-master,” Kate thought. But who was to go? She would have to go herself. There was no one else.

    In wind and rain she started on her difficult way. Soon she was at the bridge that crossed the Des Moines River, a bridge also built of wood, just like the bridge across Honey Creek. The storm had not washed this away, but there was no footpath across it. She would have to cross it by stepping from sleeper(枕木) to sleeper. With great care she began the dangerous crossing, sometimes on her hands and knees, hardly daring to look down between the sleepers into the wild flood waters below. If she should slip, she would fall between the sleepers, into the rapidly flowing stream.

    At last-she never knew how long it had taken her-she felt solid ground under her feet. But there was no time to rest. She still had to run more than half a mile and had only a few minutes left. Unless she reached the station before the express did, many, many lives would be lost.

    She did reach the station just as the train came into sight. Fortunately the station-master was standing outside. “The bridge is down! Stop the train! Oh, please stop it!” Kate shouted breathlessly.

    The station-master went pale. He rushed into the station building and came back with a signal light. He waved the red light as the train came into the station. It was not a second too early.

    When was the last time you used plastic plates? Next time, why not try some edible ones? You'll help the environment and your guests won't go hungry. "I used to work in school catering and saw a lot of money being thrown away. I thought that was criminal, so I decided to do something about it," said Italian school chef Tiziano Vicentini.

    Now, Vicentini has an amazing range of edible plates for schools. The plates are made out of bread dough, so you can eat them afterwards. "These dishes cost a few pennies each and are either eaten by the kids, or go into recycling bins for animal food," explained Vicentini, 50, of Milan. But now other companies are developing edible plates, too. The Edible-Plate Company offers edible plates, bowls, trays and cups. Their products are environmentally-friendly, 100% biodegradable and can be used for all types of catering and home use. And they're made from a natural plant. After use, they can be fed to animals or left to degrade naturally.

    They also have a range of cutlery（餐具） made from corn and potato starch（淀粉）. These plates will also help reduce the amount of plastic; we create. Waste from plastic causes a lot of damage to the environment, as well as costing governments millions m waste management. Plastic bags often end up in landfill sites or on the street. And the burning of plastic waste causes toxic gases that pollute the air. In response to this, governments around the world are introducing tough recycling regulations. And many shops are offering biodegradable plastic bags and eco-safe packaging on their products. To help matters, the International Organization for Standardization (the ISO) has also developed a system to evaluate the biodegradability of products, with a certification and logo scheme, Meanwhile, how about a nice plate for lunch?

    In the kitchen of my mother's houses there has always been a wooden stand (木架)with a small notepad(记事本)and a hole for a pencil.

    I'm looking for paper on which to note down the name of a book I am recommending to my mother. Over forty years since my earliest memories of the kitchen pad and pencil, five houses later, the current paper and pencil look the same as they always did. Surely it can't be the same pencil. The pad is more modern, but the wooden stand is definitely the original one.

    "I'm just amazed you still have the same stand for holding the pad and pencil after all these year." I say to her, walking back into the living-room with a sheet of paper and the pencil. "You still use a pencil. Can't you afford a pen?"

    My mother replies a little sharply. "It works perfectly well. I've always kept the stand in the kitchen. I never knew when I might want to note down an idea, and I was always in the kitchen in those days."

    Immediately I can picture her, hair wild, blue housecoat covered in flour, a wooden spoon in one hand, the pencil in the other, her mouth moving silently. My mother smiles and says, "One day I was cooking and watching baby Pauline, and I had a brilliant thought, but the stand was empty. One of the children must have taken the paper. So I just picked up the breadboard and wrote it all down on the back. It turned out to be a real breakthrough for solving the mathematical problem I was working on."

    This story—which happened before I was born—reminds me how extraordinary my mother was, and is, as a gifted mathematician. I feel embarrassed that I complain about not having enough child-free time to work. Later, when my mother is in the bathroom, I go into her kitchen and turn over the breadboards. Sure enough, on the back of the smallest one, are some penciled marks I recognize as mathematics. Those symbols have traveled unaffected through fifty years, rooted in the soil of a cheap wooden breadboard, invisible(看不到的)exhibits at every meal.

    Ask any new college graduate about his immediate goals, and it is likely that he will tell you he wants a job. But it turns out that today's students are not going to be satisfied with any job. According to the latest survey, making a difference through their work is essential (必要的) to young people's happiness.

    The survey found that 72 percent of graduating college seniors believe being able to have a positive social influence through their work is essential to their happiness. Making a difference is so important to them that 45 percent say they would take a 15-percent pay cut to work at an organization that has a social or environmental influence, and 58 percent say they would take a pay cut to work for an organization whose values are the same as their own.

    Besides this, the survey found that female students are far more likely to put social influence in first place than their male classmates, echoing the results of a former study showing that female maths and science majors are more likely to say they go into those fields to make a difference.

    One reason for the emphasis (强调) on improving the world probably has to do with the culture of colleges, which encourages students to connect their studies back to real-world problems. Students are used to discussing important social issues (问题) with their friends and professors, and doing something about them in class or through volunteer activities. Once students develop those habits, they don't shut them off when graduation rolls around.