Today, I had the good fortune to join the students from East Silver Spring Elementary School in Maryland as they walked and biked to school in celebration of International Walk to School Day. I want to thank Principal Morrow and the entire ESS community for welcoming me so enthusiastically.

    Walk to School Day is a great opportunity for me to spend time with parents, kids, and teachers and to present our Safe Routes to School program and the First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move initiative（倡议）.

    As a father, grandfather and former schoolteacher, I know how important it is that we provide students with safe choice to get to school while promoting exercise and healthy lifestyles. That's why I've embraced the Safe Routes to School program so wholeheartedly since I became Secretary of Transportation.

    You know, we're looking at an increasingly sedentary（久坐的）generation of children. One out of every three kids in America is now overweight. And I admire the First Lady's effort to end this within a generation. Safe Routes to School is a natural partner for Let's Move. For more than 10 years, Safe Routes to School has been making it easier for students to walk and bike from home to school. And ESS, where I walked today, is one of the earliest schools to participate.

    We know this program has been enormously effective because of the steady increase in the number of kids walking or biking to school. And as we made our way down the street this morning I was reminded yet again of this program's extraordinary work.

    Look, walking and biking to school is good for students' health. It's good for the environment. And it's good for the entire community's quality of life.

Everybody wins when kids take Safe Routes to School.

    The Healthy Habits Survey shows that only about one third of American seniors have correct habits. Here are some findings and expert advice.

    ⑴How many times did you brush your teeth yesterday?

    Finding: A full 33% of seniors brush their teeth only once a day.

    Step: Remove the 300 types of bacteria in your mouth each morning with a battery-operated toothbrush. Brush gently for 2 minutes, at least twice a day.

    ⑵How many times did you wash your hands or bathe yesterday?

Finding: Seniors, on average, bathe fewer than 3 days a week. And nearly 30% wash their hands only 4 times a day—half of the number which doctors recommend.

    Step: We touch our faces around 3,000 times a day-often inviting germs（病菌）to enter our mouth, nose, and eyes. Use toilet paper to avoid touching the door handle. And, most important, wash your hands often with hot running water and soap for 20 seconds.

    ⑶How often do you think about fighting germs?

    Finding: Seniors are not fighting germs as well as they should.

    Step: Do you know it is not your toilet but your kitchen sponge（海绵）that can carry more germs than anything else? To kill these germs, keep your sponge in the microwave for 10 seconds.

    Singapore Flyer was launched in 2008 and states to hold the current title for the world's biggest observation wheel, full 30 meters taller than the London Eye observation wheel in London! Soaring 165 meters, Singapore Flyer offers a whole view of Singapore's important tourist attractions including the scenic Marina Bay.

      Singapore Flyer is also popular for providing an attractive range of shopping and dining choices. Among its greatest dining choices is the Singapore Flyer Sky Dining, one of the most exciting dining experiences you will ever come across.

    Singapore Flyer Sky Dining is the first ever in the world to offer a full service in the sky. To top it all you are presented with best menus created by award-winning cooks from all over the world.

    The sky dining doesn't stop from there. You will gain fast boarding flights, in other words, no more waiting in line to board an observation capsule (机舱). You can enjoy the service of an in-flight host along with a nice three-course fine dining menu.

    Be ready to enjoy yourself in the air-conditioned glass capsule where you will be served a welcome drink, an appetizer (开胃品) along with the main course. From the capsule you will see the night skyline of Marina Bay, Merlion Park, Raffles Place, Empress Place and Padang, bathed in exciting colors. And not just once but you will get to see these very interesting sights twice, during your almost one hour long special dining experience.

    Up to five couples can book a small room and there are even choices to book an entire room for you and your partner. The sky dining experience begins from the VIP waiting room where you will be served with tasty desserts and drinks of your choice. You can see the Singapore Flyer conveniently from one of the top hotels in Singapore like M Hotel Singapore.

    Joey was born in 1990 in Connecticut and now lives in North Carolina in the United States. When Joey was six, he started racing small cars in competitions. He began to win many races, but they weren't big races. His parents decided to move to Atlanta, Georgia, so Joey could compete in bigger and better competitions. When he was 12, he set a record by winning 14 races in a row at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. He continued to win many races, and finally began racing with regular-sized (正常大小的) race cars.

    When Joey was 15 years old, he met the race car driver Mark Martin. Martin is a famous NASCAR driver. NASCAR is the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, and it is the biggest and most popular car-racing organization in the United States. Martin was interested in Joey and thought he was “the real deal.” He said, “I am sure that he can be one of the greatest that ever raced in NASCAR. There's no doubt in my mind.”

    Martin was right. Joey started as a NASCAR driver in 2007. NASCAR has many races, and at first, Joey was only able to compete in smaller races because of his age. In his first NASCAR season, he won a championship (冠军). In 2008, he was able to compete in bigger NASCAR competitions. He competed in one of the top NASCAR racing series called the Nationwide Series, and at 18, he became the youngest winner in Nationwide Series history.

    In 2009, he became the youngest winner in another top NASCAR racing series called the Sprint Cup Series, and he also won the Nationwide Series for the fifth time. To be one of the best drivers in the history of racing, Joey has to win many more races. But at 19, he's off to a good start.

    MacArthur's love for sailing dates back to when she was just four years of age, when she first got the opportunity to have a try. "I'll never forget that feeling as a kid of setting foot on a boat for the first time," MacArthur said. "It's kind of struck me that this boat had everything we needed to take us anywhere in the world. And as a child, that opened up everything," she explained how it felt like the "greatest sense of freedom".

    This experience lighted a passion within MacArthur. She knew then that she wanted to sail around the world. She had no idea how to achieve it — growing up in the countryside, it wasn't the most obvious career path — but she knew that was what she wanted to do at some stage. So, she acquired knowledge and saved up for years to seek a career in sailing. She would have potato and beans every day for eight years so that she could save up to buy the right equipment. By reaching certain financial goals and asking technical questions about sailing, MacArthur felt as though she was getting closer to her ambitions.

    "When you know where you're going, you can actually get there — even if it seems impossible. The impossible could be possible and aiming high is not necessarily such a crazy thing to do." And it seems that MacArthur's drive to become a sailor went beyond her expectations. At the age of 24, she started to receive media attention after participating in the Vendee Globe, a single-handed non-stop yacht (游艇) race that goes around the world. She came in second place. Some three to four years later, MacArthur chose to sail for 71 days and 14 hours, covering more than 26,000 miles during the course of her journey. This led to MacArthur scoring a new world record in 2005, as the fastest person to sail around the globe single-handedly. While this record has since been surpassed, MacArthur is still considered as Britain's most successful off shore racer.

Your colleague's sharp comment keeps replaying in your mind. Two of your students are trapped in a" he said/she said" battle. When you reflect on your emotional reactions, you sometimes get caught up in cycles of negative feelings, which can make you feel even worse. If so, the answer may lie in a skill called" self-distancing", the ability to take a step back and view yourself more objectively. According to a research, when people adopt self-distancing while discussing a difficult event, they make better sense of their reactions, experience less emotional suffering, and display fewer signs of stress.

But what might self-distancing look like in action? Consider a typical "he said/she said" student conflict where they are each focusing on their own feelings. One is thinking, "I can't believe he did that to me" And another insists. "She really hurt my feelings" However, if you ask them to take the self-distancing, they might step outside of themselves and ask broader questions:" Why was he so hurt in this situation? "or" How did her anger affect him?"

Although this approach may sound too simple to be effective, studies indicate that a change in point of view can have a powerful effect on the way people think, feel, and behave. Here are several different techniques you can try.

First, consider how a thoughtful friend might respond after quietly observing their situation. Besides, avoid using the pronoun "I". Focus on using third-person pronouns, he, she, they, and they were able to see the stressful event as challenging rather than threatening. Finally, ask yourself, "How would I feel about this one week from now or ten years from now? "This form of mental time travel may be effective because our attention is directed away from our immediate, concrete circumstances.