When you spend some time with your pet, do you feel you are in a better mood or feel like all the stress from the day has suddenly disappeared? You’re not imagining it. Scientists said they had created the study and confirmed that pets helped relieve (解除) stress.

Researchers working at Washington State University wanted to test to see whether pets help lower stress levels once or for all. They invited 249 college students and divided them into four groups samples would be taken to measure.

One group got to spend 10 minutes playing with animals while another missed out all together. A third group got to watch others play with animals while the fourth group watched a slide show of animals. Each group was given ten minutes with their task before their saliva was taken and tested once again.

Amazingly, the results showed that the group who got to play with the animals for ten minutes had the biggest drop in stress levels of any of the groups. However, the third and the fourth did also see a mild (轻微的) reduce in their stress.

The researchers now don’t know what causes the stress levels to drop so much. At the same time, some believe this might be the greatest discovery in the future.

Build your character

The benefits of a university education are well known.

Whether it’s allowing us to get the job of our dreams or giving us the chance to learn exciting new things, getting a degree is one of the smartest life choices a person can make.

But if a recent study from Australia is to be believed, university education offers more than just a pathway to knowledge.

According to the research, which was published in the journal Oxford Economic Papers this month, people who have studied at university tend to have a more outgoing personality than those who haven’t.

Indeed, it’s believed that higher education allows students to not only build their knowledge of a certain subject, but also strengthen their so-called non-cognitive abilities, which include interpersonal and communication skills.

The researchers studied 575 young Australians over eight years, measuring certain non-cognitive abilities at different stages of their education, such as how confident each person was and their willingness to help others.

It was found that as each year of their time at university went by, most students’ non-cognitive skills improved greatly.

“We see quite clearly that students’ personalities change when they go to university,” said Sonja Kassenboehmer, lead author of the study.

And in a 2016 analysis by UK education charity the Sutton Trust, it was found that those with good non-cognitive abilities were up to 25 percent more likely to be working in a well-paying job than those with poor or average ones.

So does this mean that in order to become a success, one must get a university degree? Of course not.

In fact, the researchers found that the developments in character were a result of the students’ surroundings, rather than the content of their courses.

As most university students are seeing the world on their own for the first time, they must learn how to interact with others and become liked if they’re to get ahead in life.

This could mean that those without a university education can still be as outgoing as those who have one, as long as they make the effort to expose themselves to character-building situations.

As US human rights activist Martin Luther King once said, “Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.”

Many of you may have had the experience of fighting with homework until late at night. When this happens, you might wish that you could just leave the homework as it is and go to bed.

If their parents agree, primary school students can refuse to do homework after 9 pm. and junior high school students can turn it down after 10 pm. Teachers can't punish(惩罚）students for doing so. This has raised a great number of discussion.