An environmental group called the Food Commission is unhappy and disappointed because of the sales of bottled water from Japan. The water, it angrily argues in public, has traveled 10,000 “food miles” before it reached Western customers. Transporting water halfway across the world is surely the extremely stupid use of fuel when there is plenty of water in the UK. It is also worrying that we were wasting our fuel by buying prawns from Indonesia (7,000 food miles ) and carrots from South Africa (5,900 food miles).

        Counting the number of miles traveled done by a product is a strange way of trying to tell the true situation of the environmental damage due to industry. Most food is transported around the world on container ships that are extremely energy efficient. It should be noticed that a ton of butter transported 25 miles in a truck to a farmers' market doesn't necessarily use less fuel on its journey than a similar product transported hundreds of miles by sea. Besides, the idea of “food miles” ignores the amount of fuel used in the production. It is possible to cut down your food miles by buying tomatoes grown in Britain rather than those grown in Ghana. The difference is that the British ones will have been raised in heated greenhouse and the Ghanaian ones in the open sun.

       What is the idea of “food miles” does provide, however, is the chance to cut out Third World countries from First World food markets. The number of miles traveled by our food should, as I see it, be regarded as a sign of the success of the global trade system, not a sign of damage to the environment.

    Human brains begin growing and developing at a very young age. They learn from the simplest experiences, which enable your children to be aware of the world. There's no denying that outdoor play helps a lot!

Times when children have to wait for their turns on playground equipment and following the playground rules by sharing, all these form components of a healthy social-emotional development. Young children develop their social-emotional skills through practice and small steps over time.

As parents or caregivers, it is fairly simple to support your child's social-emotional skills. Acts like holding him, touching him, and speaking to him and giving him loving care and attention are all helping factors. When you allow them freedom to play, it is important to follow their interests in helping build their social-emotional skills.

Difficulties in social-emotional skills can often lead to children having trouble when playing with other children. Becoming easily angry or not empathizing (理解) with other children are all signs that may point in this direction. This can in turn lead to them not empathizing with the needs of other children.

    As for the development of cognitive (认知的) skills, these develop through practice and opportunity over time. And while some cognitive skills may be genetic, most are learned through real life situations. In other words, learning and thinking skills can be improved through experiences.

    To enable them to learn, it is important that we are mindful of what our children are interested in. And this realization is only set in place once the child is given enough room and time to grow and explore.

    Depriving children of such experiences can mean that they might struggle with higher- level thinking skills. And while it is normal to keep them safe, we forget that by rushing them and cutting down on play time, we're actually causing more harm than good.

    Mr.Bean is an internationally recognized comedy character on TV and in films. He constantly gets into awkward and absurd situations, which greatly amuses audiences regardless of their nationalities or culture. The humor is always made clear through a series of simple and funny acts that rely purely on body language, which is universal.

    One of the remarkable shows is that Mr.Bean has a meal in a fancy restaurant. After being seated at his table, Mr.Bean takes out a card, writes a few words on it, seals(密封) it in an envelope and places it on the table. After a moment, he looks back at the envelope but this time he looks surprised, as if he did not know it was there. He opens it to find a birthday card and delightedly puts it on the table for everyone to see.

    When he looks at the menu, an astonished look swiftly appears on his face. He takes all the money out of his wallet, counts it and puts it in a saucer(茶托)．He then looks from the menu to the money with concern until he finds one thing that makes him smile. Then he orders a dish called "steak tartare". When the dish arrives, he is shocked to discover that "steak tartare" is actually raw hamburger. He makes an attempt to eat it, but it is clear from the look on his face that he finds the taste truly disgusting. He cannot hide his feelings, except when the waiter asks if everything is all right. When this happens, he smiles and nods, indicating that everything is fine. When the waiter is not looking, however, he busies himself hiding the raw meat anywhere he can reach-the sugar bowl, the tiny flower vase, inside a bun(小圆面包) and under a plate. He becomes so desperate in the end that he even hides some inside the purse of a woman sitting near him and throws some down the trousers of the restaurant's violinist!

Following the old saying of "early to bed and early to rise" I used to go to bed at 10 pm and get up early at 6 am to get ready for school. But that day, as it was cloudy, I continued to sleep for long, thinking it to be the early hours of the day.

Suddenly, I heard a loud voice which startled me up and made me sit upright. It was my mother's voice who was knocking and shouting, "Get up honey. It's 6:45 am already! You are getting late for school!" As it was a cloudy day, I hadn't realized that it was almost 7 and continued dozing for long!

But thank fully that day our pick-up person who generally used to come at 6:50 am got late due to the showers and arrived just in the nick of time when I was ready. By the time we reached school it was a quarter to eight and the drizzle from previous night had finally stopped. I entered the classroom fearing the teacher's anger, but saw only a few students had made it to school. Therefore, the principal declared a holiday. "Hurray!" We all cheered in a chorus at the unexpected holiday and decided to walk back home.

    As it had been continuously drizzling since the previous night there was water all over the place and the roads were impassable. Just then, at a distance my sister and I saw little kids playing in knee-deep water in the streets which touched the play button in us. We quickly approached them and merrily jumped and hopped in the pool of water with them. With shoes in our hands we continued parading on the muddy streets. We were thrilled and our hearts were filled with joy at the sight of the green and fresh leaves on the trees; the frogs drew our attention as we tried to catch butterflies.

    We finally reached home busily playing and laughing with mud-spattered uniforms and shoes. We hurriedly changed our outfits, washed up and sat watching TV with a bowl of hot soup! No doubt, I thoroughly enjoyed this day and secretly prayed for many such days in the future! To this day when it pours, the memories of that eventful rainy day bring a smile on my face!

Martin Luther King Jr. Day events around Tampa Bay

    Plant City Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend

    Plant City celebrates the holiday for three days with opening ceremonies, a photo display, a street festival, a parade and a battle of the bands competition on Saturday; and a leadership breakfast and gospel festival on Sunday. Food and drinks are free Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation Center (Plant City), 1601 E Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. , Plant City. (813) 757-9195. 10 a. m.-10 p. m. Saturday, 7:30 a. m. -4 p. m. Sunday.

    Martin Luther King Jr. Day Tarpon Springs

    A community parade lines up at the corner of Levis Avenue and Tarpon Avenue and ends in Dorsett Park with a festival featuring performances by church choirs, mime teams and dance groups. Free. Dorsett Park, 500 E Harrison St. , Tarpon Springs (727) 798-5718 11 a. m. Saturday.

    Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Day Unity Breakfast

    Enjoy breakfast, entertainment and readings of the winning student essays about social development. A march to a festival in Pioneer Park follows. Free. Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation Center, 550 Laura Lane, Dunedin. (727) 738-2920. 8:30 a. m.-10 a. m. Saturday.

    Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service

    Meet at the park for opening ceremonies and a breakfast snack before departing to participate in various community service projects. Then, return to the park for an appreciation lunch. Free. Tomlinson Park, 1820 55th St S, Gulfport. (727) 893-1118. 8 a. m.-12: 30 p. m. Saturday.

    Great Ex Martin Luther King Jr. Day

    Children can make necklaces that represent Martin Luther King Jr. 's ideas and design a paper doll for an "I Have A Dream" doll chain throughout the museum. Included with admission: $10, $ 9 seniors, 1 and younger free Great Explorations Children's Museum, 1925 Fourth St. N, St. Petersburg. (727) 821-8992. 10 a. m.-3 p. m. Monday.

Lanrick Jr. Bennett holds a unique title in Toronto: bicycle mayor. He led a Halloween Kidical Mass ride recently, which I attended with my daughter, son-in-law, their two dogs, and my granddaughter. He is working towards making cycling mainstream and safe for all residents in the city. I did not know that Toronto had a bicycle mayor; I surely would have voted for him in an election.

The bicycle mayor program is run by BYCS, an Amsterdam-based global NGO that believes "bicycles transform cities and cities transform the world". Standing in the strange but wonderful Bentway, a park built under an elevated expressway, Bennett says, "BYCS has 150 bicycle mayors across the world. And through a few friends putting in some really nice letters of encouragement, BYCS offered me a two-year term as an advocate here in the city of Toronto, becoming the first bicycle mayor of the city."

Bennett says he is boosting the work being done to make cycling more mainstream in Toronto. "I am giving a bit more exposure to the great work that has allowed me to be able to ride a bike throughout the city. It's getting better, we're seeing more infrastructure（基础设施）, and we're seeing more people not wanting to depend on cars as their primary piece. I'm happy that I have been part of a fantastic group thus far," says Bennett.

Since there's still a lot of work to do, Lanrick Jr. Bennett has been working hard to improve cycling conditions in Toronto, and his efforts have been recognized by the community. He has been advocating for more bike lanes（车道）, better lighting, and other safety measures to make cycling a practical option for commuters（通勤者）. It's great to see people like Lanrick

Jr. Bennett working towards making cycling safe and accessible for all residents.