【推荐2】My mother was a cook. Through her I learned to appreciate how a handful of ingredients could create delicious, nutritious meals on tight budgets. And in our home, nothing was ever wasted, as we shopped for food needs as opposed to wants.

I talk about all this because I’m absolutely shocked by the price of groceries. And, as someone who has been writing about the food industry for decades, and having weathered the economic depression when the price was also high—I have never seen things as bad as they are today.

Just recently, I couldn’t bring myself to purchase three small potatoes for almost $7. I saw cucumbers for $3.99 EACH. Some stores had grapes at a ridiculous $6.99 a pound. Add to that the alarming increase in everyday food, like coffee, milk and dairy, no wonder everyone is feeling the pinch(拮据).

I went shopping on the weekend, and came out with $186 worth of food in three grocery bags. I returned two items immediately. I purchased a liter of milk that had been marked down 50%—but I didn’t catch in time that the cashier forgot to ring in the discount, and charged me full price.

As I just feed my husband and myself, I can afford to purchase more organic proteins, like chicken. But I can also appreciate not every family can afford to do so, which is my major concern.

Can the increase of food prices be slowed down or even stopped? With the increasing consumer demand for foods not in season or readily available, plus people looking for fast convenience, I do believe the answer lies within us: We need to take back control over the foods we eat. Stop listening to all the hype (宣传) that convenience is better than cooking creativity, and just get back to basics.

People need to go back to basics, learn some fundamental kitchen essentials and truly be mindful of cooking practices. Just as an old saying goes, if you give someone a fish, they’ll eat for a day, but if you teach someone to fish, they’ll eat forever.

【推荐3】People often say that the Englishman’s home is his castle. They mean that the home is very important and personal to him. Most people in Britain live in houses rather than flats, and many people own their homes. This means that they can make them individual; they can paint them, and change them in any way they like. Most houses have a garden, even if it is a very small one, and the garden is usually loved. The house and the garden are the private space of the individual.

People usually like to mark their space. Are you sitting now in your home or on a train? Have you marked the space around yourself as your? If you are on the train you may put your coat or small bag on the seat beside you. If you share a flat you may have one corner or chair which is your own.

Once I was travelling on a train to London. I was in a section for four people and there was a table between us. The man on the space on my side of the table at all. I was angry. Maybe he thought that he owned the whole table. I had read a book about non-verbal communication so I took various papers out of my bag and put them on his briefcase! When I did this he stiffened and his eyes nearly popped(瞪出)out of his head. I had invaded his space! A few minutes later I took my papers off his case in order to read them. He immediately moved his case to his side of the table. Of course, it is possible that he just wanted to be helpful to me!

If you are visiting another country you may feel that you don’t have any private space. Hotel rooms look much the same in every country in the world. All day long, you share public spaces with other people. You see the local people in their private spaces and you feel lonely and “outside”. Local people can create their private spaces by talking about things you don’t know about .And you even feel that they like you to be outside them so that they will enjoy being inside even more! This is one of the difficulties of being a traveler! But if you understand it then it helps you. Haven’t you enjoyed being part of a group and “owning” a bit of space?

【推荐3】Many animals move from one place to another at certain times of the year. This annual movement is called migration. For an adult African elephant, migrating is no easy task.

While they face scarce water supplies and 120-degree temperatures on their track, people are their number-one problem. Warfare destroys food on which migrating elephants depend and creates dangerous areas where elephants cannot travel safely. Worse still, many African people have traded nomadic (游牧的) lifestyles for farming. Unfortunately for elephants, farmers set up fences to protect crops and domestic animals, many of which block regular migration paths.

Roads also disturb elephant migration. Those outside national park boundaries are prior poaching (偷猎) spots. Elephants know unguarded roads are dangerous. During one study of 28 elephants in Central Africa, only one female crossed an unprotected road. When she finally crossed, she moved 14 times faster than she did when crossing a protected road inside a park.

To help, medical procedures are taken to keep male elephants from breeding, which reduces the number of births and the environmental pressure on regions where elephants cannot migrate. Even though African elephants are the largest land animal, the role that its migration plays in the entire ecosystem is not fully understood. GPS tracking collars can help these elephant “travel agents” map which routes elephants use most. Dr. Michael Chase, the founder of Elephants Without Borders, tracks elephants in 22 countries with technology. “If we are able to identify how elephants move, we can link up habitats from one country to the other,” he says. In many poor areas of Africa, since no other paying work is available, poachers illegally kill elephants and sell irony (象牙) to feed their families. When poachers become park staff, they will have money to feed their families and meanwhile elephants will be protected.

The elephant is the ambassador for conservation. Protecting elephant migration routes will allow these gentle giants to thrive.