American actress Marisa Tomei won an Academy Award for her work in the 1992 movie My Cousin Vinny. People laughed when they saw her film character telling a boyfriend that they need to get married. Why marriage? Because her biological clock is ticking and she wants a baby.

“Well I hate to bring it up because I know you got enough pressure on you already. But…we agreed to get married as soon as you won your first case(law case). Meanwhile, ten years later…my niece…the daughter of my sister is getting married. My biological clock is ticking like this (stomp, stomp, stomp). And the way this case is going…I ain’t never getting married.”

“Lisa, I don’t need this. I swear to God I don’t need this right now.”

Using it this way, a biological clock means the time in a woman’s life when she is able to bear children. In the not-so-distant past, most people thought that when a woman reached her 40s it was too late for her to have children. The time on her biological clock had run out.

Well, that has changed. These days some women are resetting their biological clocks. They are giving themselves more time to have children.

Make no mistake. Being a “Single Mother by Choice” is very different from younger women who find themselves pregnant, perhaps not by choice.

Generally speaking, single mothers by choice are older and well educated. They are usually financially secure and successful in their careers. So, they have the money. What they may not have is a partner.

This is the place in life where writer Kerry Reichs found herself several years ago. She says she did not plan to become a single mother. She says she just did not find the right partner.

“Well, I think I had a set of standards for the partner I was looking for and I didn’t meet anyone that fit those standards. And, at 39 I found myself single, without children and I wanted them very much. So, I made the difficult decision that I could do this on my own.

Eating together is a value that has long been forgotten but it has a number of benefits which bring people together with lovely experiences. Every meal has a story and stories never consist of a single person. 【小题1】. Eating together brings those experiences together on a table and then they are shared through taste buds (味蕾）.

Helps build relationships

We are so busy with our lives that we forget how important it is to communicate with our family and friends. Eating together is a chance to learn from one another and it gives you a sense of security that you are always surrounded by the people who love you. 【小题2】. Having meals together helps create bonds, increase well being for one another and make you feel what the other person means to you.

【小题3】

Are you still unwilling to eat certain dish? Eating together can make you try the food that can change all your impressions and mindsets that you created being reluctant (不情愿) to it. You never know what you like, and it gives you the element of surprise on what you were missing out on. Experimenting with your food will not only provide you with numerous nutrients but will save you from boredom to eat the same type of food every other day.

Forms good eating habits

Eating together can help make your eating habits healthier. Especially children could make good habits from the beginning to help them in their future to maintain the influence. 【小题4】, which means you maybe reduce down the daily sugar intake or reduce the carbs (碳水化合物). It can maintain your everyday life healthier.

We often forget how important it can be for everyone to eat together, no matter how much we want to isolate ourselves, we are social beings at the end of the day. 【小题5】. Food is not only a fuel for our body but also acts as a bridge in our relationships, culture and our mental well being.

A punctual (准时) person is in the habit of doing a thing at the proper time and is never late in keeping an appointment.

The unpunctual man, on the other hand, never does what he has to do at the proper time. He is always in a hurry and in the end loses both time and his good name. A lost thing may be found again, but lost time can never be regained. Time is more valuable than material things. In fact, time is life itself. The unpunctual man is forever wasting and mismanaging his most valuable things as well as others. The unpunctual person is always complaining that he finds no time to keep appointments, answer letters, or return calls promptly.

A punctual person can be very busy and really has a great deal to do. What is different is that he is very careful of his time and seldom complains of shortage of it. He knows that he cannot get through huge amount of work unless he faithfully deals with every piece of work when it has to be attended to.

Failure to be punctual in keeping one’s appointments is a sign of disrespect towards others. If a person is invited to dinner and arrives later than the appointed time, he keeps all the other guests waiting for him. Usually this will be regarded as a great disrespect to the host and all other guests present.

Unpunctuality, moreover, is very harmful when it comes to doing one’s duty, whether public or private. Imagine how it would be if those who are put in charge of (负责) important tasks failed to be at their proper place at the appointed time. A man who is known to be habitually unpunctual is never trusted by his friends or fellow men.