Imagine being a crew member, hundreds of years ago, sailing in southern waters. Your captain is searching for food while exploring unfamiliar waters. Your job is to watch the sea off the ship's side for ice. The wind is cold on your face. Alongside the ship, a fish darts past. Another slows to a stop and raises its head above the water to look at you. How could a fish do that?

    Did the sailors see fish with feathers or swimming birds? Today, we know that the sailors saw birds that developed the ability to swim. Their wings became flippers, and they could “fly” through the water with amazing speed.

    There are many types of penguins. Only two kinds raise their young on the continent of Antarctic. Adelie penguins grow up to 29 inches tall and have a white ring around each eye. Emperor penguins have yellow orange color near their necks. Standing about 35 inches tall, they are the tallest penguins living today.

    Emperor penguins have nests on top of their feet. Father Emperor penguins keep the egg on top of their feet for more than two months, until the egg is ready to hatch. The mother penguin goes out for food during that time. Imagine holding an egg on your feet for two months until someone returns with food!

    Male and female penguins are both good parents. Once the chicks hatch, both parents travel long distances to find food for them in the sea. It may be days before the parents return and the chicks eat again. When they return with food, the fun really begins. Chicks chase their parents, begging for food. Penguin chicks eat huge amounts at one time.

    Eventually, the adult penguins stop feeding the chicks. This is nature's way of forcing children to grow up. When the penguin chicks are hungry enough, they find their way to the sea. Without any swimming lessons, they make their way into the icy waters and swim as only penguins do.

    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.

    Chocolate is good for your heart, skin and brain. Usually, people think that chocolate is bad for their health. They describe chocolate as “something to die for” or say “death by chocolate”. Now they should bite their tongues! Evidence is showing that some kinds of chocolate are actually good for you in the following ways:

    A happier heart

    Scientists at Harvard University recently examined 136 studies on cocoa—the main ingredient in chocolate and found that it does seem to strengthen the heart．Studies have shown heart benefits from increased blood flow. These benefits are the result of coca's chemicals, which seem to prevent both cell damage and inflammation (炎症)．

    Better blood pressure

    If yours is high, chocolate may help. Jeffrey Blumberg from Tufts University recently found that people with high blood pressure who ate 3.5 ounces of dark chocolate per day for two weeks saw their blood pressure drop quickly.

    Muscle magic

    Chocolate milk may help you recover after a hard workout (锻炼). In a small study at Indiana University, people who drank chocolate milk between workouts did better on a tiredness test than those who had some sports drinks.

    Better for your skin

    German researchers gave 24 women a half-cup of special cocoa every day. After three months, the women's skin was moister (滑润的) and smoother. The research shows that chocolate helps protect and increase blood flow to the skin, improving its appearance．

Brain gains

    It sounds almost too good to be true, but research suggests that chocolate may improve your memory, attention span, reaction time, and problem-solving by increasing blood flow to the brain．

    When I lived in Spain, some Spanish friends of mine decided to visit England by car. Before they left, they asked me for advice about how to find accommodation. I suggested that they should stay at 'bed and breakfast' houses, because this kind of accommodation gives a foreign visitor a good chance to speak English with the family. My friends listened to my advice, but they came back with some funny stories.

"We didn't stay at bed and breakfast houses," they said, "because we found that most families were away on holiday."

I thought this was strange. Finally I understood what had happened. My friends spoke little English, and they thought 'VACANCIES' meant 'holidays', because the Spanish word for 'holidays" is 'vacancies'. So they did not go to house where the sign outside said 'VACANCIES', which in English means there are free rooms. Then my friends went to house where the sign said 'NO VACANCLES', because they thought this meant the people who owned the house were not away on holiday. But they found that these houses were all full. As a result, they stayed at hotels!

    We laughed about this and about mistakes my friends made in reading other signs. In Spanish, the word 'DIVERSION' means fun. In English, it means that workmen are repairing the road, and that you must take a different road. When my friends saw the word 'DIVERSION' on a road sign, they thought they were going to have fun. Instead, the road ended in a large hole.

English people have problems too when they learn foreign languages. Once in Paris, when someone offered me some more coffee, I said "Thank you" in French. I meant that I would like some more. However, to my surprise the coffee pot was taken away! Later I found out that "Thank you" in French means "No, thank you."

    To personal trainer Sammy Callari, 13-year-old Parker Seward is more than a client(客户). He's his "little brother". Over the past year, the pair have bonded. They play basketball together, share meals and dance to hip-hop like no one's watching.

    The trainer was asked to work with the 13-year-old boy, who has Down syndrome(唐氏症), because his coworker who dealt with the boy was out of town last spring. Callari had never worked with someone with a disability before. He was anxious the first day he met Parker. But Parker's big smile and cheery introduction immediately put him at ease. He reminded Callari of himself when he was a teenager. Like Parker, Callari has also faced his fair share of challenges over the years.

    As a high schooler, Callari described himself as being the weak kid. When it came to sports, he was always overlooked. His dream of playing baseball in college quickly faded away. When he went to college, Callari turned to a new sport. His younger brother trained him to become a boxer. Callari participated in five matches. Out of four of those fights he was the underdog, and he won three times. "I know how it feels," Callari said. "Society tells you that you can't do this, you can't do that." When it comes to Parker, Callari refuses to accept the word "can't".

    The friends meet twice a week to train. They bike, box, run and work on their core with push-ups. Parker has a short attention span, so it's Callari's job to keep him focused. "If Parker can do it, if he's having fun, even with his frustration, then people will ask, "Why can't I do that?" Callari said. "That's the whole task right now."

    Callari recalls Parker's mom once thanking him for taking a "chance" on her son. Callari told her he never viewed it that way. Parker may be the student, but Callari says he's also the one who's learning.

    Next autumn when you see wild geese heading south for the winter flying in a V formation you might think about what scientists have discovered as to why they fly that way.

    As each bird flaps(拍打) its wings, it creates an uplift(升力) for the bird immediately following. By flying in V formation the whole group adds at least 71% greater flying range(航程) than if each bird flies on its own.

    People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going more quickly and easily because they are traveling on the push of one another. When a wild goose falls out of the formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance(阻力) of trying to go alone and quickly tries to get back into the formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird in front. When the head goose gets tired, it flies back into the formation and another goose flies to the front. It is wise to take turns doing difficult jobs whether it be people or wild geese flying south.

    Wild geese honk(发出雁叫声) from behind to inspire those up front to keep up their speed. When a wild goose gets sick or wounded by gunshots, and falls out of the formation, two other geese will fall out with that goose and follow it down to lend help and protection. They will stay with the fallen goose until it is able to fly or until it dies, and only then will they go on with their own or with another formation to catch up with their group.