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.

    No fashion event attracts the world quite like the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. In November 2017, more than 55 models descended upon Shanghai for the lingerie（内衣）maker's first show in Asia. Victoria's Secret cast eight Chinese models for the show, including Liu Wen, double the number that walked in 2016.

    Liu Wen, a Chinese fashion model, started her modeline career in 2005 after competing in the reality TV show New Silk Road World Model Contest. Although she did not win the competition, Liu soon began working full-time as a model, eventually becoming a national success story after working with fashion magazines like Vogue and Harper's Bazaar that are popular in China, In 2007, she was signed to the Marilyn agency, and has since walked for Burberry. Givenchy, Chanel, Tom Ford, Proenza Schooler and Tommy Hilfiger.

    Liu walked a record 74 shows in New York, London, Milan and Paris for the autumn/ winter 2009 season, followed by 70 for spring/summer 2010, making her the second most-booked catwalk model that year. She has also achieved 15 international Vogue covers to date.

    In 2009, Liu became the first woman of Chinese origin to walk in the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. Liu also participated in the 2010—2012 shows. She returned to the Victoria's Secret runway again in 2016.

    In the past, Liu has said that after modeling she might enjoy working as a stylist or, were the opportunity to arise, as an actress-she feels that modeling and acting have much in common, but for now she enjoys modeling and working in the fashion industry. She has stated that she knows that, as a career choice, working as a fashion designer or stylist would be “very hard work”, but she is now more seriously considering becoming a stylist because she would like “to share her fashion style -tomboyish, vintage, and comfortable-with the world”.

    It was a comfortable sunny Sunday. I was going to meet an old university friend I hadn't seen for years, and was really excited.

    My train was running a little late, but that was no big problem - I could text him to say I would be delayed. He would understand. But… where was my mobile phone? I had that familiar sinking feeling. Yes, I'd left it at home.

    No mobile phone. I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling anxious, on edge and worried when I don't have my phone with me. In fact, I know I'm not alone: two-thirds of us experience 'nomophobia' (无手机恐惧症), the fear of being out of mobile phone contact.

    That's according to a study from 2012 which surveyed 1,000 people in the UK about their relationship with mobile phones.

    It says we check our mobile phones 34 times a day, and that 18-24 year-olds, especially girls, are the most likely to suffer fear of being without their mobiles: 77% of them say they are unable to be apart from their phones for more than a few minutes.

    Do you have nomophobia?

    You never turn your phone off

    You frequently(频繁地) check for texts, missed calls and emails

    You always take your phone to the bathroom with you

    You never let the battery run out

    It's funny to think that around 20 years ago the only people with mobile phones would be businessmen carrying their large, plastic 'bricks'. Of course, these days, mobile phones are everywhere. A UN study from this year said there would be more mobile phones than people across the world by the end of 2020.

    And when there are more phones than people in the world, maybe it's time to ask who really is in charge(主管)? Are you in control of your phone, or does your phone control you?

    So, what happened with my university friend? When I arrived a few minutes late he just laughed and said: "You haven't changed at all – still always late!" And we had a great afternoon catching up, full of jokes and stories, with no desire(欲望) to check my phone.

    Not having it with me felt strangely free. Maybe I'll leave it at home on purpose next time.

    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.

    If your dog looks pleased to see you—it is probably because it loves the particular way you smell.

    The scent (气味)of a familiar human apparently lingers like perfumein the animal's brain—where it causes an instinctive emotional response, research reveals.

    Our scent acts on a part of the canine (犬科的) brain associated with reward and the strongest reactions are produced by humans that pets know best, say scientists in America.

    Gregory Bern, of Emory University in Atlanta, said, “While we might expect that dogs should be highly tuned to the smell of other dogs, it seems that the 'reward response' is reserved for their humans. When humans smell the perfume of someone they love, they may have an immediate, emotional reaction that's not necessarily cognitive (认识的). So is it in dogs. But since dogs have a more sensitive smell than humans, their responses would likely be even more powerful than the ones we might have. In our experiment, however, the owners of the dog were not physically present. The canine brain responses were being caused by something distant in space and time. It shows that dogs' brains have these mental representations of us that persist when we're not there.”

    The experiment involved 12 dogs of various kinds by brain scans while five different scents were placed in front of them. The scent samples (样本)came from the subject (接受试险者) itself, a dog the subject had never met, a dog living in the subject's household. The familiar human scent samples were taken from someone else from the house other than the handlers during the experiment, so that none of the scent donors were physically present.

    The results showed all five scents gained a similar response in parts of the dogs brains involved in detecting smells. Responses were significantly stronger for the scent of familiar humans, followed by that of familiar dogs. The findings showed dogs reacted strongest to the scent of familiar humans even when they were not there. Pets trained as help or therapy dogs showed greater brain activity than the other dogs in the test.

    Researchers say the findings could improve the way to select animals helping wounded old soldiers or disabled people.

    Planning a visit to the UK? Here we 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 £l18.15.

    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.

    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).