Planning a visit to the UK? Here were help with ways to cut your costs.

    AVOID BIG EVENTS Big sporting events, concerts and exhibitions can increase the cost of accommodation and make it harder to find a room. A standard double room at the Thistle Brighton on the final Friday of the Brighton Comedy Festival(19 Oct.) cost  ￡169.15 at Booking .com. A week later, the same room cost ￡118.15.

    If you can be flexible and want to know dates to avoid—or you're looking for a big event to pass your time-check out sites such as Whatsonwhen.com, which allow you to search for events in the UK by city, date and category.

    STAY AWAY FROM THE STATION If traveling to your destination by train, you may want to find a good base close to the station, but you could end up paying more for the sake of convenience at the start of your holiday.

    Don't be too choosy about the part of town you stay in. Booking two months in advance, the cheapest room at Travelodge's Central Euston hotel in London for Saturday 22 September was￡95.95. A room just a tube journey away at its Covent Garden hotel was ￡75.75. And at Farringdon, a double room cost just ￡62.95.

    LOOK AFTER YOURSELF Really central hotels in cities such as London, Edinburgh and Cardiff can cost a fortune, especially at weekends and during big events. As an alternative consider checking into a self-catering flat with its own kitchen. Often these flats are hidden away on the top floors of city centre buildings. A great example is the historic O'Neill Flat on Edinburgh's Royal Mile, available for ￡420 for five days in late September, with room for four adults.

    GET ON A BIKE London's ‘Boris bikes' have attracted the most attention, but other cities also have similar programmes that let you rent a bicycle and explore at your own pace, saving you on public transport or car parking costs.

    Among the smaller cities with their own programmes are Newcastle (casual members pay around￡1.50 for two hours) and Cardiff (free for up to 30 minutes, or ￡5 per day).

    With exams just around the corner, now is a good time to explore some of UCL's lesser-known study spaces and get down to some revision. Here are some good choices for you.

    UCL Senate House Hub

    UCL Senate House Hub opened in 2015 and provides 144 study spaces. What's more, you can check how many spaces are available online before you head to the hub! Located on the third floor of the South Block of Senate House, the center has room for individual and group study in traditional library spaces, as well as casual armchairs and bar-style desks.

    UCL Eastman Dental Library

    The newly refurbished(翻新的) UCL Eastman Dental Library is located halfway along Gray's Inn Road and is open from Monday to Friday, 9:00 am–8:00 pm. The library has 72 study spaces, and many IT facilities are available. The library also has a study room for meetings and a computer room with an interactive whiteboard.

    UCL Language & Speech Science Library

    UCL Language & Speech Science Library (Lass) has disabled access and has recently been refurbished to add extra study spaces. With only 49 spaces, Lass is smaller than most other UCL Libraries and tends to fill up relatively quickly, so get there early to avoid disappointment.

    Senate House Library

    This one may be cheating as the Senate House Library is not technically a UCL library. However, all UCL students and staff can register for free membership online. With millions of books and journals, Senate House Library offers some places a little less used by UCL students but perfect for getting down to some hard work.

    When I was growing up, Mother's Day was as important as Christmas.

    The energy around the house was always positive, mostly thanks to my father who made sure that his kids appreciated their mother. We would clean the house, and Mum got breakfast in bed in the morning and didn't have to lift a finger all day. And in the evening, we went to a restaurant for a traditional Mother's Day dinner.

    What I learned from my father over the years, was that no matter what, he always put my mother before himself. He absolutely loved her and never let her forget that.

    I maintain(保持) my father's Mother's Day tradition with my wife. Growing up, I learned that showing affection to the woman you love or who gave birth to you is an important part of life. You see, it goes both ways, and the love you have for your mother comes back to you again and again.

    Believing that and feeling it when you can may keep you from being lonely, even if your mum isn't close by or has passed away. There are a number of us who no longer have a mother in our lives, and truth be told, there are often times when I wish my mum were still here to comfort me. So instead, I remember the times she did just that. It makes me smile, and somehow, those memories of a more simple and loving life give me the comfort I'm looking for.

    If you are mum-less, you too should find a deserving woman in your life and celebrate Mother's Day with her. If you don't know anyone, there are plenty of lonely mums in rest homes who would enjoy your company for a couple of hours. The visit will make both of your days, and perhaps your lives, a little bit better.

    Thomas Cheatham had planned to study Latin during his time at Hebron High School in Texas. But when he learned that the school district was going to offer a Mandarin(普通话) class, he quickly changed his mind.

    "I thought Mandarin would be more beneficial than Latin," said Cheatham, who is now in his second year of studying the language.

    He speaks Mandarin to order food at Chinese restaurants and can read social media posts from his Chinese-speaking friends. While it's a difficult language to master, the high school junior, who plans to study computer engineering, thinks it will be important for his career. "Chinese is a good language to know, especially with China becoming a growing power," he said.

    Many experts agree that proficiency(熟练) in a language spoken by a billion people worldwide will give American students an edge in the global economy.

    "People are looking at China as our next economic competitor, and interest in Mandarin is growing fast," said Marty Abbott, director of the American Council(议会) on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. "We're seeing it in all parts of the country."

    Abbott predicts that as many as 100,000 students are now studying Mandarin in public and private schools throughout the US. She said the US government has designated (指定) Mandarin as an "important needs" language and provides professional development programs for teachers. "Our government wants to increase our language ability for national security and economic competitiveness," Abbott added.

    At the same time, the Chinese government is spreading knowledge of the Chinese language and culture through Confucius Institutes set up in many US states. For example, the Confucius Institute at the University of Texas in Dallas has been the home of a Confucius Institute for 10 years. It sponsors Confucius Classrooms at 21 local public and private schools, where tens of thousands of students are learning Mandarin.

    I read somewhere that we spend a full third of our lives waiting. But where are we doing all of this waiting, and what does it mean to an impatient society like ours? To understand the issue, let's take a look at three types of "waits".

    The very purest form of waiting is the Watched-Pot Wait. It is without doubt the most annoying of all. Take filling up the kitchen sink(洗碗池) as an example. There is absolutely nothing you can do while this is going on but keep both eyes fixed on the sink until it's full. During these waits, the brain slips away from the body and wanders about until the water runs over the edge of the counter and onto your socks. This kind of wait makes the waiter helpless and mindless.

    A cousin to the Watched-Pot Wait is the Forced Wait. This one requires a bit of self-control. Properly preparing packaged noodle soup required a Forced Wait. Directions are very specific. "Bring three cups of water to boil, add mix, simmer(用文火炖）three minutes, remove from heat, let stand five minutes." I have my doubts that anyone has actually followed the procedures strictly. After all, Forced Waiting requires patience.

    Perhaps the most powerful type of waiting is the Lucky-Break Wait. This type of wait is unusual in that it is for the most part voluntary. Unlike the Forced Wait, which is also voluntary, waiting for your lucky break does not necessarily mean that it will happen.

    Turning one's life into a waiting game requires faith and hope, and is strictly for the optimists among us. On the surface it seems as ridiculous as following the directions on soup mixes, but the Lucky-Break Wait well serves those who are willing to do it. As long as one doesn't come to rely on it, wishing for a few good things to happen never hurts anybody.

    We certainly do spend a good deal of our time waiting. The next time you're standing at the sink waiting for it to fill while cooking noodle soup that you'll have to eat until a large bag of cash falls out of the sky, don't be desperate. You're probably just as busy as the next guy.

When bicycle-sharing company oBike pulled out of Singapore abruptly last year, it left the city with unattended bicycles everywhere. Myanmar businessman Mike Than Tun Win saw the perfect opportunity to turn trash (垃圾) into treasure. "What if these bicycles could be distributed to poor students in villages so they can cycle to school? " he thought.

Mr Than, 33, grew up in Mandalay, where he used to walk to school as a student. While traveling through rural (乡村的) areas in Myanmar over the last few years he saw things had not changed. Long lines of children in rural villages continue to walk 30 minutes to an hour just to get to school. "I thought if we could just reduce the time they take, they could spend more time studying, gain more knowledge and increase their chances of getting out of poverty (贫困), " he said.

With that, he started a movement called Lesswalk with the intention of buying bicycles from bike-sharing firms oBike and ofo—which have stopped operations in Singapore — and shipping them to Yangon. He would renew the bicycles before distributing them to teenagers and families living in rural villages in Myanmar, beginning with villages in Mandalay and Sagaing areas.

Over the last three months, the businessman has bought 10, 000 bicycles in Singapore and Malaysia. He paid for 5, 000 of the bicycles out of his own pocket, with other sponsors paying for the rest.

Mr Than plans to modify (修改) the bicycles so that they can better suit the needs of the children in villages. Most of the time they ride around with their little brothers and sisters. "I'm planning to add an extra seat at the back so that they can go to school together," he said. He also plans to remove the digital locks and give each a new one that works better in villages.

Including the cost of shipping, modification and distribution, Mr Than thinks each bicycle might cost him around US $35 to US $40. "I might have to spend more money, but it is better that these bicycles are going to help some people rather than going to waste," he said.