3 . Globally, around 14 percent of food produced is lost between harvest and retail (零售). Farmers throw away a significant share of their crop due to factors beyond their control, such as produce not meeting supermarket standards for shape or size, unexpected weather patterns changing harvest times and yield as well as a shortage of pickers. These factors and others leave farmers with extra crops on their hands.

Gleaning — collecting leftover crops from farmers’ fields after they haven’t been harvested or commercial use — may contribute to tackling the problem. In Britain, a growing network of volunteer gleaning groups are being welcomed into farmers’ fields to collect tonnes of free produce. The produce would then be given to local food banks, which would otherwise be left to rot after the commercial harvest.

The charity Feedback told The Times that its number of gleaning groups across England had risen from five in 2017 to twenty last year. Feedback’s overall aim is for closer links between farmers and the communities they feed.

Holly Whitelaw, 52, from St Just in Penwith, set up the Cornwall Gleaning Network last year after watching a BBC series that highlighted food poverty in Cornwall. She contacted Feedback which gave her a £2, 000 grant (拨款) to get insurance, knives, and cut-proof gloves. She set up a Facebook page, found willing volunteers and then managed to get a £10, 000 grant from Feeding Britain, a national network of anti-hunger partnerships, to establish seven coordinators across the county and pay for more knives and gloves. They also raised funds to buy a pick-up truck. As a thank you to the farmers, they have begun planting trees to reduce wind speed across their land, preventing damage to crops and minimizing soil erosion.

Gleaning offers an opportunity for environmental win by reducing food waste on the farm. Also, it has a social benefit, as the collected fresh food can be donated to charity organizations and food banks to support those in need.

4 . There is a popular saying in the English language: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Well, that is not true. Unkind words, name-calling or even the so-called “the silent treatment” can hurt children as much as being physically hit, sometimes even more so. A recent study of middle school children showed that verbal (言语的) abuse by other children can harm, the development in the brain. The study was a project of researchers at Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts. Researcher Martin Teicher and his team studied young adults, aged 18 to 25. These young men and women had not ever been treated in a cruel or violent way by their parents. The researchers asked the young people to rate their childhood exposure to verbal abuse from both parents and other children. Then the researchers performed imaging tests on the brains of the subjects.

The images showed that the people who reported suffering verbal abuse from peers in middle school had underdeveloped connections between the left and right side of the brain. The two sides of the brain are connected by a large bundle of connecting fibers called the corpus callosum. This was the area that was underdeveloped.

The middle school years are a time when these brain connections are developing. So, unkind, hurtful comments from children or adults during this period have the greatest effect. The researchers tested the mental and emotional condition of all the young people in the study. The tests showed that this same group of people had higher levels of fear, depression, anger and drug abuse than others in the study.

The researchers published their findings online on the American Journal of Psychiatry's website.

Parents cannot control what other people say to their children, but they can prepare their children.

7 . “Preventing obesity and smoking can save lives, but it doesn’t save money,”reported researchers. “ It was a small surprise, for it is against the common belief,” said Pieter van Baal, who led the study. “But it makes sense. If you live longer, then your costs of the health system will be more.”

The researchers found that from age 20 to 56, fat people had the most expensive health costs. But on average, healthy people lived 84 years. Smokers lived about 77 years, and fat people about 80 years. Smokers and fat people tended to have more heart disease than healthy people. Therefore, in the long run, the thin and healthy group spent about $417,000, from age 20 on. Smokers spent about $ 326,000 and fat people $371,000.

“The result throws a bucket of cold water onto the idea, based on guesswork, that obesity is going to cost trillions of dollars,” said Patrick Basham, a professor of health politics. “If we’re going to worry about the future of obesity, we should stop worrying about its financial impact,” he said.

“The benefit of obesity prevention may not be seen immediately in terms of cost saving in tomorrow’s budget, but there are long-term gains,” said Baal. “These are often immeasurable when it comes to people living longer and healthier lives.” In the meanwhile, he said that governments should recognize that successful smoking and obesity prevention programs mean that people will have a higher chance of dying of something more expensive later in life.

“Lung cancer is a cheap disease to treat because people don’t survive very long. But if they are old enough to get Alzheimer’s(早年性痴呆症) one day, they may survive longer and cost more. We are not advising that governments stop trying to prevent obesity,” Baal said.” But they should do it for the right reasons.”

9 . “When your mother scolds you, you can look elsewhere and think about other things. Just ignore her words. But remember: such a tough attitude cannot be used often.” These words are from a series of cartoons which outline skills for children to fight against their mothers. The images have created heated debate among Chinese netizens（网民）.

Regarded as “a book for children aged 6 to 12 who are always scolded by their parents”， the cartoons, drawn by two 10-year-old Beijing girls, list over 20 skills which children can use to deal with their mothers’ anger such as crying, pretending to be ashamed, fleeing into the toilet and pleasing her afterwards. Each skill is described with vivid pictures and humorous notes. The creativity of the young girls has amazed netizens, the Yangtse Evening Post reported on Thursday.

According to one of the girls’ mothers, her daughter once received a poor mark in an exam, and the mother blamed her and compared her performance with another classmate. The daughter’s feelings led to her creating the cartoons. The girl’s father, who first posted the pictures on his Sohu Microblog on Monday, said he hopes parents pay close attention to the pictures, allow children to feel free to develop their own characteristics and try not to criticize them so often.

“The cartoons, although an individual case, reflect a modern phenomenon and some of the problems within Chinese family education,” said Yu Qinfang, an expert on family education. According to a survey of 104 children and their parents, Yu discovered that as many as 51.9 percent of primary school students hate being urged to do things by their mothers. “Not giving children enough time and hurrying them to do things seems to be a very tiny detail within family life, but it is potentially a huge problem which can easily be ignored by parents. A mother’s blame may lead to negative feelings within her child’s heart,” Yu said. “Parents should learn to blame less and be more patient.”

10 . Helping voters out

The US 2020 presidential election has captured people's hearts around the world. In order to allow voters to vote in person, poll (投票站) workers need to work at different vote centers. In past elections, most poll workers were elderly, but now that they are more at risk of severe symptoms from COVID - 19, there was a growing need for young people to serve as poll workers.

I first became aware of the opportunity to become a poll worker from a story on an Instagram account called “Poll Hero?”. It mentioned the effort to recruit young poll workers on a large - scale, and I immediately became interested in participating. I signed up to be a poll worker from the website, and a few days later, I registered through the High School Student Election Worker Program with the assistance of a Poll Hero volunteer.

After registering, there were two steps I had to take in order to become certified (认证的) to serve in this election. The first was an online training course, which takes around three hours. It covers the different roles workers have, different procedures workers must follow and provides information on how to use tools such as the electronic pollbook. The session is interactive, and I often engaged in simulated (模拟的) situations and knowledge checks to ensure that I understood each lesson. After taking the online course, I had to pass an exam with an 80 percent score or higher to complete that part of my certification. On my first attempt, I passed with a score of exactly 80 percent.

After passing the online course, I attended a two - hour in - person training session where I worked with a real electronic pollbook to practice what I would do on Election Day. The instructor took us through many different scenarios (场景) where we practiced assisting different types of voters. I was pleased to see many young people attend the session! In total, I spent 37 hours helping voters vote during this election. With my mask on the entire time, I checked in voters and helped them use the ballot (投票) marking devices where they could cast their vote. I also loved meeting fellow workers who are passionate about being engaged and helping our community. Taking part in this historic election is something I will never forget.