In the early morning, I head for the back door and find 10 inches of snow covering our home. Oh no, Bryan will have to clear the roof again, I think. But Rio rolls onto his back, playing in the white snow and kicking his back legs, delighted. His days in an animal shelter in New Mexico are long forgotten—he's wholeheartedly enjoyed life as a Colorado dog.

    Rio needs a walk. I've planned to attend an emergent webinar, but my husband is busy clearing. Rio pushes my leg with his snout(口鼻部), wondering why we are still inside. We're late for our morning hike. I pull on my boots reluctantly. I don't have time for this!

    Rio and I walk a block through our neighborhood to the beginning of a road. Rio jumps happily into the snow, which is up to his neck. But I walk slowly with heavy steps, worrying about my to-do list, and I don't notice the world around me until Rio starts barking.

    A squirrel (松鼠) chitters at him from a high branch of a pine tree. We haven't seen a squirrel in at least a week because of all the snow storms, so this is a treat for us.

    Once again, my animal teacher is reminding me to enjoy the present moment, and I'm grateful. I take a deep breath and look around. Suddenly there is an explosion(爆炸) of snow. a nearby tree has released its heavy burden, snapping(迅速恢复) back upright. Silver snowflakes(雪花) dust the air around me as a group of birds flees the area, talking to one another as they fly overhead.

I watch and listen in wonder for what seems like a full minute. There will be 1440 munites on this day, but this is the one I'll remember most. Then I look back to the earth and there is my sweet dog, waiting patiently for a treat. He knows I'll want to celebrate this moment we've just shared. “I love you, Rio!” I say as I give him a cookie. He has trained me well!

    When we walk home, I smile broadly, spirit washed clean, ready for whatever the day may bring.

    People with an impulsive personality refer to those who tend to do things without considering the possible dangers or problems first. According to a new study by researchers at the University of Georgia, such people may be more likely to have food addiction. The study found that people exhibiting impulsive behavior weren't necessarily overweight, but impulsiveness was related to a direct relationship with food, and therefore, less healthy weight.

    Food addiction has been compared to addictive drug use. Studies have linked the dopamine (多巴胺) release that occurs after tasting delicious food to the dopamine release that happens when people consume other addictive substances.

    Impulsive behavior involves several personality traits (特点). Two of these traits, known as negative urgency and lack of perseverance, were particularly associated with food addiction and high BMI (身体质量指数) during the study.

    Negative urgency is characterized by the tendency to behave impulsively when experiencing negative emotions. Some people might drink alcohol or take drugs. For others, it could mean eating to feel better. Lack of perseverance is when a person has a hard time finishing hard or boring tasks. People with a lack of perseverance might have difficulty attempting to change addictive eating behavior, which could also cause obesity.

    “Impulsiveness might be one reason why some people eat in an addictive way despite motivation to lose weight,” said Dr. Ashley Gearhardt, a clinical psychologist. He was involved in developing the Yale Food Addiction Scale in aid of those people. “We are theorizing that if food addiction is really a thing, then our measure, the Yale Food Addiction Scale, should be related to helping control impulsive action,” said Gearhardt.

    Clinical psychologist Dr. James MacKillop, whose lab was conducting the study, believes that therapies used to treat addictive drug behavior could help people who suffer from addictive eating habits.

    “Most of the programs for weight loss at this point focus on the most obvious things, which are clearly diet and exercise,” MacKillop said. “It seems that managing strong desires to eat would naturally fit in with the skills a person would need to eat healthily.”

    The noise of chattering mouths subsided（平息）as the teacher entered classroom. “Good morning class. I am Riffat Monaf, and I will be your geography teacher.” Riffat Monaf, an interesting name and an even more interesting person. Her introduction took place about six years ago, and since then I have never met a more influential person in my life.

    Mrs Monaf not only conquered me with her vast knowledge of geography, but also won me over with her smile and warm eyes. It was in her class that I traveled to the highest mountains and to the deepest seas from the comfort of the classroom. I learned about the vast oceans, the erupting volcanoes, the snow-capped mountains and the green valleys. She would often relate her adventures about traveling to different parts of the world.

    Never can I forget the glory of her face when she talks about how truly beautiful this world is. If I search back my love for the environment and geography, I find her to be the source of my love for preserving nature. If one day I became an environmentalist, I know that I'll thank her for it. Apart from this, she has always greeted me with open arms and she calls her students “my children”. Mrs Monaf's morals and values rubbed off me deeply and I have always taken her advice into consideration. She has been one of the most consistently good things in my life.

    Currently, she is fighting a battle against breast cancer, and it pains me to know that after all she has done for me; I can do nothing for her except pray. Whenever I see her in school, she still keeps that kind smile and an expression so soft that it trembles my heart. Mrs Monaf still talks enthusiastically about geography, and I know that I can never see what a truly great person she has been in my life. .

Help Hermit Crabs

    Hermit crabs are nature's recyclers. They eat waste and help keep oceans and shores clean. Unlike other crabs, the hermit crab has a thin outer shell over its soft tail. This makes the hermit crab easy prey for hungry predators(天敌).Hermit crabs stay safe by living in old seashells. A hermit crab is picky(狡猾); it tries on many shells until it finds one that fits just right. In recent years, however, many hermit crabs have had trouble finding their perfect homes. What is the problems. There are not enough shells to go around!

    One reason for the seashell shortage is that ocean water is not as clean as it once was. This has caused chemical changes to sea water. Some sea animals, like snails, are affected by these changes.  Now there are fewer snails making shells. People visiting the beach often take shells home as souvenirs(纪念品).This is another problem. Other people even take shells for their own pet hermit crabs! They do not realize that hermit crabs in the wild need those shells too.

    Now people are working to solve this hermit crab housing shortage. They are teaching beach-Boers to leave seashells where they belong--at the seashore! Some people even make fake seashells that they hope the hermit crabs will like. For example, a group called Project Shelter invited people who visited their website to create different designs for hermit crab shells.

    These designers had a lot to consider. What kind of material should be used to build a seashells. The material must be light enough for the hermit crab to carry, but strong enough to protect the crab from predators. The man-made shells could not contain glue or any other substance(物质)that might harm a hermit crab. Another challenge with building a hermit crab home was the opening to the shell. Too big would mean the crab would not feel safe. Too small would be uncomfortable, and the crab would not want to move in.

    The Project Shelter shells are placed in the wild for hermit crabs to find. Lucky hermit crabs can move into these new dream homes.

    A 4-year-old boy was given the chance to celebrate his favorite holiday early this year after a neighborhood in Illinois heard that he would miss the chance to trick or treat because of a vital Surgery (手术).Sonny Mead, who put on a Superman costume for the special day, hit more than 20 hours along his special trick-or-treat route and was even treated to a ride in a fire truck.

    “He thinks today is Halloween,” Jackie Mead, the boy's mom, told Fox 2 Now on Wednesday. “We let him pick his costume, and up until today he was going to be Spider-Man, and then he decided that he wanted to be Superman because he wants superpowers.”

    Sonny was diagnosed with craniosynostosis (颅缝早闭), which causes the skull bones to fuse prematurely, affecting brain growth. Sonny had pieces of his skull removed to give his brain more room to grow in 2015, and the bone was supposed to grow back but never did.

    So on Friday, doctors will use a 3-D printer and bone from a dead body to rebuild Sonny's skull. His recovery is expected to take between two and six months, meaning he'll not be able to trick or treat when Oct.31 comes.

    But once Amanda Richert heard that her friends son would miss out on the trick-or-treating fun, Goshen Meadows citizens, in Edwardsville, Illinois united in a group to make sure he had a chance for the trick-or-treat fun. Sonny's mother said their reaction was overwhelming.

    Both honeybees and ants are social insects that live in groups called colonies. They survive by means of their collective intelligence. Their decision-making power is distributed throughout the group; that is, no one ant or bee makes decisions for the group. Instead, they work together. As Deborah M. Gordon, a biologist at Stanford University, says," Ants aren't smart. Ant colonies are."

    The same is true for bee colonies. Although bees and ants are quite different physically, they have a lot in common in terms of their social behavior. Specifically, honeybees and ants have similar roles within the colony, both have communication systems, and both have the capacity for learning.

    Ants communicate by using chemicals called pheromones, which can alert others to danger or to a food source. For example, when worker ants find a promising source, they let the rest of the colony know how to find it by leaving a trail of pheromones on the way back to the colony. The other ants pick up the message using their sense of smell. Bees, on the other hand, use movement to communicate with each other. Worker bees send messages to each other by means of a "dance". Different speeds and movements send different messages. For example, when worker bees called scouts go out to find a new home for the colony, they return and do a dance for the other worker bees that indicates the location of the new home and how suitable it is. The faster the scouts dance, the better the new location is.

    Honeybees and ants are both capable of learning. One Chinese study found that bees can be trained to learn and remember a route to a food source. The researchers also found that bees can be taught to recognize hidden objects and use the concepts of "sameness" and" difference" to accomplish certain tasks. Ants take this one step further. Recent American research has shown that ants not only have the ability to learn, but also can teach their foraging skills to other younger ants.

They observed that older ants accompany young ants in search of food and teach them the route and how to avoid obstacles.

    As we can see, the social behavior of honeybees and ants is quite similar. Both coordinate complex actions and accomplish crucial survival tasks by cooperating in groups consisting of many individuals. Unintelligent as they may be as individuals, as groups they often show amazing brilliance as they go about their everyday activities.