This week's UK news: 2 May 2014
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2 May 2014


New world record for vegetable


Some people in the UK enjoy growing enormous vegetables to win prizes. This week a gardener has broken the world record for growing the largest cauliflower.
Cauliflowers are a member of the cabbage family, with leaves surrounding a ball-shaped white inside. Peter Glazebrook's cauliflower weighs more than 27kg (60lb) and is almost 3kg heavier than the previous record holder. The leaves surrounding the heart of the vegetable were 6ft in diameter.
Mr Glazebrook is good at growing prize-winning vegetables. He has four world records already, for the longest beetroot and parsnip (both root vegetables) and the heaviest onion and potato. The beetroot was 21 ft long, the parsnip 19 ft long, the onion weighed almost 18lb and the potato 11lb.
The man who previously held the record for the largest cauliflower also came from the UK. If you would like to see some prize-winning vegetables during your stay in the UK, look out for garden or flower shows. These often include competitions for large or perfect fruit or vegetables.

 

Teenager with cancer raises almost GBP3m


Stephen Sutton, who is 19, is in hospital with terminal bowel cancer. He wanted to raise GBP 10,000 for the Teenage Cancer Trust charity. He updates his condition on a Facebook page, and recently described how he coughed up a piece of tumour that was making it hard for him to breathe.
Celebrities including the band Coldplay and actor David Tennant have written about Stephen on Twitter, encouraging people to donate to the charity. He has now raised an amazing GBP 2.85 million, and a comedian is trying to help by running a fund-raising concert. Tickets sold out in just four minutes.

 

Oldest child most successful

New research has found that the oldest child in the family is likely to be most successful and ambitious, especially if the child is a girl. Boys born first also do well: all 12 men who have walked on the moon are first or only children.
The study, done at the University of Essex, also found that the bigger the gap between children, the higher qualifications they achieved. Firstborn children were 7 per cent more likely to want to continue their education than younger siblings, and 16 per cent more likely to go into further education. Eldest girls were 13 per cent more ambitious than eldest boys.
Researcher Feifei Bu said the differences might be that their parents devoted more time to older children.

Rules for good manners in men

Calling someone a "gentleman" is not as common in the UK now as it used to be. It is slightly complicated to explain, but a gentleman was often someone who was born into a good family or a rich family. Gentlemen followed rules of good behaviour.
The idea of being a gentleman disappeared decades ago, but now a British magazine has started a Gentleman of the Year award and published a list of rules for modern gentlemen.
It says a gentleman is relaxed in all situations and helps other people to be relaxed, is always on time, dresses well for every occasion, and is aware of how much money other people have. Gentleman are allowed to drink too much but not to behave badly.
Gentlemen don't own a cat, drink Malibu, wear a pre-tied bow tie, lycra clothes or pink trousers or put gel in their hair. They also don't use Twitter or write with a ballpoint pen. Most men are probably not gentlemen under these rules.

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