readelf

Explaining readelf -S output

I'm trying to load an elf file into a MIPS simulator I made. The problem I'm having is that I don't quite understand the meaning behind the elf section header offset. When I do a segment dump, segments 25 - 31 and 33 - 35 "start" at 0x00000000 but the header states that the segment starts at an offset of some value (ex. 010190). Also ...