In 2004 ,when my daughter Becky was ten , she and my husband ,Joe, were united in their desire for a dog . As for me , I shared none of their canine lust.

But why , they pleaded. “Because I don't have time to take care of a dog.” But we'll do it. ” Really? You're going to walk the dog? Feed the dog? Bathe the dog?” Yes, yes , and yes .”I don't believe you .” We will . We promise.

They didn't . From day two (everyone wanted to walk the cute puppy that first day ) , neither thought to walk the dog . While I was slow to accept that I would be the one to keep track of her shots , to schedule her vet appointments , to feed and clean her , Misty knew this on day one . As she looked up at the three new humans in her life (small, medium, and large) , she calculated ,”The medium one is the sucker in the pack .”

Quickly, she and I developed something very similar to a Vulcan mind meld (心灵融合) . She'd look at me with those sad brown eyes of hers , beam her need , and then wait , trusting I would understand — which , strangely , I almost always did . In no time , she became my feet as I read , and splaying across my stomach as I watched television .

Even so , part of me continued to resent walking duty .Joe and Becky had promised. Not fair , I'd balk (不心甘情愿地做) silently as she and I walked . “Not fair , ” I' d loudly remind anyone within earshot upon our return home .

       Then one day — January 1, 2007 , to be exact — my husband ‘ s doctor uttered an unthinkable word : leukemia ( 白血病) .With that , I spent eight to ten hours a day with Joe in the hospital , doing anything and everything I could to ease his discomfort. During those six months of hospitalizations, Becky, 12 at the time, adjusted to other adults being in the house when she returned from school. My work colleagues adjusted to my taking off at a moment's notice for medical emergencies. Every part of my life changed; no part of my old routine remained.

      Save one: Misty still needed walking. At the beginning, when friends offered to take her

through her paces, I declined because I knew they had their own households to deal with.

      As the months went by，I began to realize that I actually wanted to walk Misty. The walk in the morning before I headed to the hospital was a quiet, peaceful time to gather my thoughts or to just be before the day's medical drama unfolded. The evening walk was a time to shake off the day's upsets and let the worry tracks in my head go to white noise.

      When serious illness visits your household, it's , not just your daily routine and your assumptions about the future that are no longer familiar. Pretty much everyone you acts differently.

Not Misty. Take her for a walk, and she had no interest in Joe's blood counts or 'one marrow test results. On the street or in the park, she had only one thing on her mind: squirrels! She Was so joyous that even on the worst days, she could make me smile. On a daily basis she reminded me that life goes on.

      After Joe died in 2009，Misty slept on his pillow.

I'm grateful一to a point. The truth is, after years of balking, I've come to enjoy m' walks with Misty. As I watch her chase after a squirrel, throwing her whole being into the here-and-now of an exercise that has never once ended in victory, she reminds me, too, that no matter how harsh the present or unpredictable the future , there's almost always some measure of joy to be extracted from the moment.

    The UK's largest coffee seller, Costa Coffee, has promised to recycle half a billion coffee cups a year by 2020 to deal with plastic waste. The move, which means recycling the same number of cups it puts onto the market, would account for a big percentage out of the 2.5 billion takeaway cups thrown away across the country every year.

    Though marked as recyclable, most of paper coffee cups end up on landfill(垃圾场) or being burned due to the plastic lining(涂层) used to make them waterproof. By paying waste collectors to take coffee cups to certain places, Costa hopes to increase the rate at which cups are recycled. Finally, all a customer will need to do to make sure their cup avoids landfill is throw it into a standard recycling bin.

    Started following the Environmental Audit Committee's report recommending ministers take action to deal with coffee cup waste, the campaign has pushed for action from governments and businesses and promoted possible solutions. Starbucks has promised ￡7m to develop a "fully recyclable cup" following pressure from campaigners, while Waitrose, a supermarket, has planned to stop using disposable(一次性的) coffee cups from its stores by autumn.

    The company has entered into a partnership with five national waste collectors – Veolia, Biffa, Suez, Grundon and First Mile – that between them cover public spaces across the UK including hospitals, universities and transport hubs. The coffee company is also working with paper factories to make sure their products are recycled effectively. James Cropper, for example, has plans to upgrade 500 million cups a year to create plastic-free packaging. By building more partnerships with waste contractors in every area, Costa means to hit its half a billion mark within two years.

    With one report showing the number of takeaway drink cups thrown away in the UK is set to rise by a third by 2030, and the government recently failing to tax some coffee to discourage cup use, it falls to businesses to act on the huge amount of waste from their products.

    Commenting on the announcement, Environment Minister Therese Coffey said: "Congratulations to Costa on taking this significant step to help coffee lovers do the right thing and increase recycling. We all have a responsibility to our environment and this is a significant step by a British business which should increase the number of disposable coffee cups we recycle in this country." "We want to help companies become plastic free and through our 25 Year Environment Plan we are putting in place the aims to encourage all of us to play our part in ending the pollution of plastic waste in our natural environment."

    Nowadays science has made great progress in every aspect and more and more really good inventions have changed our daily lives. However, the U.S. Patent Office has issued over 7.5 million patents (专利), and not all of them are quite so celebrated. Some good, some bad, and some crazy! The following lists some of the most unusual ideas that have come along.

    Snake Leash (皮带)

    In 2002, a patent was issued for a snake-walking leash. There are at least two major problems with this idea. 1) Dog leashes fit securely between the head and shoulders. A snake does not have shoulders; so it might slither (蜿蜒滑行) away. 2) Dogs are OK for public places because they are social animals, and people like them. Snakes are not OK for public places because they are not social, and some people are terrified of them.

    Stadium Helmet

    Americans are known for their love of sports. Unfortunately, good tickets to games are expensive, so some fans have to sit in the backward sections. This invention, patented in 2000, is designed for these fans. Featuring a built-in radio, binoculars (望远镜), a cooling fan, and a helmet for falling litter, this design transforms the stadium experience.

    Bacon Alarm Clock

    When you think about it, waking to the dreadful, blaring noise of an alarm clock is a terrible way to start the day. However, this clock could change that. You simply put a piece of frozen bacon in the alarm clock, set the alarm, and go to sleep. The clock gently wakes you up with the mouth watering smell of bacon the next morning, just like waking up on a Sunday morning to the smell of mom cooking breakfast. Who said there's no time to eat breakfast?

    Toilet Lock

    In 1969, a patent was issued for a really bad idea the toilet seat lock. First of all, fishing for your keys when you have to go seems very unpleasant. Then there is the possibility of losing the key altogether. What about guests? Just think that you would have to ask permission for the bathroom. Of course, there is the ultimate question: Why would you lock it in the first place?

    A society that lives by the plastic fork may very well die from it. That's how things are looking. Anyway, for a world so used to disposable(一次性的) habits, any hope for a solution(解决方案) also increasingly seems to be buried.

    Sure, there have been some hopeful ideas. Boyan Slat, the Dutch inventor developed a plan for Covering the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Not long after it started, Slat's system experienced "material fatigue(疲劳)"-likely the result of being strained(使受到压力) by all that trash-and the task was delayed.

    All the while, the plastic increases. Its growth is very fast, according to Linda Wang, a professor of chemical engineering at Purdue University. She says, "We'll have more plastic than fish by 2050." Yet Wang, along with other researchers at Purdue, may have a solution not only to this plastic problem, but also to the growing need for clean energy.  Her team has developed a system that turns waste, a durable, lightweight material that accounts for about a quarter of all plastic waste, into a highly pure form of gasoline.

    Publishing their findings in the journal Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering, the scientists' state that instead of making plastic go away, they can break it down and reuse it, using chemistry to destroy what chemistry brought to the world when plastic was developed back in 1907.

    The process uses "supercritical" water-heated to around 450 degrees Celsius (842 degrees Fahrenheit),beyond the key point at which distinct liquid and vapor phases(气液态) exist-to boil plastic waste into an oil, the researchers explain. It takes a couple of hours for the supercritical water to complete the transformation, but the result is a kind of oil that can be used as gasoline or fuel. It can also be turned into other products.

    The researchers have only made the transformation in a laboratory setting so far, but they suggest turning the process to a commercial scale(规模) may not be far off. And considering the 300 million tons of plastic into the environment every year, that day can't come soon enough. But it will come in time.

What's On Stage

An acrobatic (杂技) show: To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the China Acrobatic Troupe will present "The Soul of China"， where the seemingly impossible is made real. Chills (寒战) will run down your spine (脊柱) as you watch breathlessly as performers take their art and their bodies to the edge.

Time: 7：30 pm, September 13－19

Place: Capital Theatre, 22 Wangfujing Dajie, Dongcheng District

Exhibitions

Joint Show: A group ink painting exhibition is running at the Huangshicheng Art Gallery in Beijing. About 50 works by 25 young artists including Ge Yun and Yu Yang are on display .

Time: 9：00 am－5：00 pm until September 10

Place: Huangshicheng Gallery, 136 Nanchizi Dajie, Dongcheng Distirct

Oil paintings: The Wanfung Art Galley will host a joint show of oil paintings by 10 young and middle­aged artists. On display are more than 30 of their latest works, which capture (捕捉) the wondrous variety of life in unique (独特的) styles .

Time: 9：00 am－4：00 pm until September 15

Place: 136 Nachizi Street, Dongcheng District

Literature (文学) museum: The National Museum of Modern Chinese Literature offers an indepth study of the evolution of Chinese contemporary literature from 1919 to 1949.

Time: 9：00 am－4：00 pm, daily

Place: 45 Anyuan Donglu , Chaoyang District (Shaoyaoju area)

Concerts

Beijing rocks: "The Fashion Night of Chinese Rock" is set to bring rock fans out by the thousands next month. Nine Chinese rock bands will perform at the concert, including older generation bands, middle generation and some recent arrivals. The audience (听众) will be given a chance to decide what songs they want to hear, which is sure to bring a storm.

Time: September 16

Place: The Olympic Center

Belgium Orchestra (管弦乐队): La Petite Bande, the Baroque Orchestra of Belgium will perform in Beijing at the Grand Theatre of the Cultural Palace of Nationalities as part of activities across the world to commemorate (纪念) the 250th anniversary of Bach's death .

Time: 7：30 pm, September 11－14

Place: Grand Theatre of the Cultural Palace of Nationalities

The Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), China's leading aircraft maker, created the country's first fully solar-powered drone (无人机). The large drone, Qimingxing 50, took off at 5:50 pm on September 3rd, 2022, from an airport in Yulin of Shaanxi Province and stayed in the air for 26 minutes before landing on the same runway. AVIC said that all systems of the unmanned plane functioned well on its first flight.

Powered by six electric motors with solar batteries, the drone is designed to conduct long-time operations in near space. Near space is that part of Earth's atmosphere at altitudes of 20 to 100 kilometers. It is above the top altitudes of commercial airliners but below orbiting satellites.

Qimingxing 50, also called "quasi-satellite", features high operational efficiency and eco-friendliness and will be tasked with high-altitude reconnaissance (侦察), forestry fire monitoring, atmospheric environmental inspection, aerial mapping, communication signal relay and other operations.

"Thanks to its capability to conduct very long endurance flights in near space, the drone can essentially become a substitute for satellites," a Chinese aerospace expert said. Satellite services are not always available due to the limited number of satellites and relatively fixed schedules of overhead passes. In time-sensitive missions, near-space drones can offset these disadvantages, the expert said, noting that satellite services could also be damaged in wartime, so near-space drones could replace them in this occasion.

The successful first flight of the Qimingxing-50 lays a solid foundation for the development of key technologies in the country's new energy field, the composite (复合的) material field, which will enhance China's ability to perform tasks in near space and over far oceans. AVIC will seize the opportunity to increase investment and speed up the development of large solar-powered unmanned aircraft.