English

PHOTOGRAPHY CLUB: NEW MEMBERS

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED: SUNDAY KITCHEN

MY FIRST TIME ALONE
A teenager writes about her first solo trip

Last December I did something I had never done before: I travelled on my own. (9) ______ my parents were nervous about it, they finally agreed, and I took the morning bus from Kuala Lumpur to Malacca, where my aunt lives.

I have wanted to see the old town ever since I (10) ______ about the Dutch Square in a history lesson. On the bus I enjoyed (11) ______ the palm plantations roll past the window. By the time the bus finally arrived, my aunt (12) ______ for me at the station for almost an hour, but she only smiled and hugged me. "Students go free at the maritime museum, so you (13) ______ bring much money," she said the next morning.

On the second day I joined a boat trip on the river. It (14) ______ that the old well in the town has never dried up, and our guide showed it to us. She also (15) ______ us not to feed the monkeys on the riverbank.

If I (16) ______ the earlier bus home, I would have seen the sunrise over the river, but I was too tired to get up. Now I wish I (17) ______ more days there. It was one of the (18) ______ experiences of my life, and I am already planning my next trip.

THE STICKER THAT SAVES YOUR SUPPER

1 Every year, the average family throws away about a third of the food it buys. Much of it is perfectly good. People panic when the "best before" date passes, or they forget the vegetables at the back of the fridge until they turn into a brown liquid. All that wasted food costs money and, because rotting food gives off harmful gases, it also harms the environment.

2 Researchers at a university in Johor have now developed a small sticker called FreshGuard, which you place inside a food box or on a packet. It contains a gel that reacts to the gases produced by rotting food. When the food is fresh, the sticker is green. As the gases build up, it turns yellow, and when the food is no longer safe to eat, it turns red. No battery or phone is needed.

3 In a trial, 200 families used the stickers for three months. By the end, they were throwing away 30 per cent less food. One of them, Mrs Hamidah, admits that she used to throw away anything that was a day past its date. "Now I look at the sticker, not the date," she says. "Last week my yoghurt was two days late, but the sticker was still green, so we ate it, and nobody got ill."

4 Not everyone is convinced. Some environmentalists point out that the sticker itself is made of plastic, and that making it creates waste. Dr Lai Wen Ting, who leads the team, accepts the criticism. "We are not saying the sticker solves everything," she says. "But a small piece of plastic that stops a whole chicken from being thrown away is a good trade. And our next version will be made of paper."

5 The team hopes that supermarkets will start printing the colour-changing labels on their own packaging within two years. For now, the inventors are happy that something so simple can change the way we look at the food in our kitchens. "The best inventions," says Dr Lai, "are the ones that change how people think."