Two things changed my life: my mother and a white, plastic, daisy bike basket. I would be a different person if my mom hadn’t turned a silly bicycle accessory(配件) into a life lesson I carry with me today.

It was summer and, one day, my mother drove me to the bike shop to get a tire fixed — and there it was in the window. White, shiny, plastic and decorated with daisies, the basket seemed so appealing and I knew I had to have it.

“Mom, please can I get it? I’ll do extra chores for as long as you say. I’ll do anything, but I need that basket. I love that basket. Please, Mom. Please?”

“You know,” she said, gently rubbing my back while we both stared at what I believed was the coolest thing ever, “If you save up, you could buy this yourself.”

“By the time I make enough it’ll be gone!”

“Maybe Roger here could hold it for you,” she smiled at Roger, the bike guy.

“For that long? He can’t hold it for that long, Mom. Someone else will buy it. Please, Mom, please?”

“There might be another choice,” she said. My mother bought the beautiful basket and put it safely out of reach in some hiding place I couldn’t find. Each week I eagerly counted my growing nest egg earned by extra work here and there (washing the car, helping my mother make dinner, delivering milk around the neighborhood). And then, weeks later maybe, I counted, re-counted and jumped for joy. Oh, I made it! I finally had the exact amount we’d agreed upon.

Days later, the unthinkable happened. A neighborhood girl I’d played with appeared with the exact same basket fixed to her shiny, new bike. I rode my bike fast home to tell my mother about this disaster, this horrible turn of events.

And then came the lesson I’ve taken with me through my life: “Honey, your basket is extra-special,” Mom said, gently wiping away my hot tears. “Your basket is special because you paid for it yourself.”

Sports can help you keep fit and get in touch with nature. However, whether you are on the mountains, in the waves, or on the grassland, you should be aware that your sport of choice might have great influence on the environment.

Some sports are resource-hungry. Golf, as you may know, eats up not only large areas of countryside, but also tons of water. Besides, all sorts of chemicals and huge amounts of energy are used to keep its courses（球场）in good condition. This causes major environmental effects. For example, in the dry regions of Portugal and Spain, golf is often held responsible for serious water shortage in some local areas.

There are many environment-friendly sports. Power walking is one of them that you could take up today. You don’t need any special equipment except a good pair of shoes; and you don’t have to worry about resources and your purse. Simple and free, power walking can also keep you fit. If you walk regularly, it will be good for your heart and bones. Experts say that 20 minutes of power walking daily can make you feel less anxious, sleep well and have better weight control.

Whatever sport you take up, you can make it greener by using environment-friendly equipment and buying products made from recycled materials. But the final goal should be “green gyms”. They are better replacements（代替物）for traditional health clubs and modern sports centers. Members of green gyms play sports outdoors, in the countryside or other open spaces. There is no special requirement for you to start your membership. And best of all, it’s free.

The human body is designed to move. But modern lifestyles and office jobs rarely give us the chance to move around. As we know, we’re sitting while we’re eating; we sit in the car and we sit while we watch TV. And many of us sit for many hours at work.

New research shows that sitting less than three hours a day might extend your life by two years. Peter Katzmarzyk, a scientist at the University of Louisiana in the southern United States, says that sitting is ubiquitous in our lives, meaning it is something we do all the time, everywhere.

However, Mr. Katzmarzyk says that does not mean you can sit for the rest of your waking hours. He also says you may exercise often, “We can’t throw away physical activity. It’s extremely important. We have 60 years of research showing us that.”

Mr. Katzmarzyk and his colleagues are part of a new generation of researchers studying how sitting all day affects length of life. “Studies that have assessed the relationship between sitting and mortality (死亡率) or television viewing and mortality are very rare. There’s only been a few of them, actually five or six now, in the last four or five years.” They found that cutting television time to less than two hours a day could add one point four years to life.

Luckily, change is already coming to some offices, especially in the design of desks. A “standing desk” lets people stand while they work. Another new design is called the “treadmill desk.” A treadmill is an exercise machine that lets you walk in one place. Even some U.S. schools are beginning to experiment with desks that are part bicycle to keep children moving. That’s one of the strategies that many companies are using now.

Mr. Katzmarzyk also says studying this problem has inspired his team to make a few changes in their own lives.

Are supermarkets designed to persuade us to buy more? When you enter a supermarket, the manager knows better than you: how you will behave — which way you will walk, where you will look, what will make you buy one product rather than another. When customers go into a shop, they naturally look to their left but move clockwise, towards the right. So supermarket entrances are usually on the left of the building. And the layout is designed to take shoppers around the store, aisle (通道) after aisle, from left to right.     11    

Fresh fruit and vegetables are displayed near supermarket entrances.     12     Basic food like sugar and tea, are not put near each other. They are kept in different aisles so customers are taken past other attractive foods before they find what they want. In this way, shoppers are encouraged to buy products that they do not really want.

People walk quickly through narrow aisles, but they move slowly in wide aisles and give more attention to the products. One best-selling position for products is at the end of aisles, because shoppers slow down to turn into the next aisle.     13     Supermarkets are paid by food companies to put their products in each of these high-selling places.

    14     While parents are waiting to pay, children reach for the sweets and put them in the trolley.

More is bought from a fifteen-foot display of one type of product (e.g. cereal, washing powder) than from a ten-foot one.     15     They do not like to buy from shelves with few products on them because they feel there is something wrong with those products that are there.