The day before my daughter Norah's fourth birthday, something she said foreshadowed a remarkable event. I'd just picked her up from preschool when she cautioned me not to mind the elderly person walking across the parking lot at a glacier's pace. She went on to explain that she had a soft spot for old folks: "I like old people best because they walk slowly like I do and they have soft skin as I do. They are all gonna die soon, so I'm gonna love them before they die." I was struck by her thoughtfulness and sympathy.

The following day — her birthday — again on the way home from school, she asked if we could stop at the grocery store to buy cupcakes for her and her six siblings to enjoy after dinner. How can you say no to a birthday girl? I popped Norah and her younger sister into one of those car-shaped grocery carts and headed toward the bakery. After we picked up the cupcakes, I stopped at a shelf that caught my eye. While I was distracted, Norah was busy standing up in the cart, excitedly waving and gleefully proclaiming, "Hi, old person! It's my birthday today!" The man was elderly, with his weather-beaten face. However, before I could shush her, he stopped and turned to her. If he was troubled by my innocent child, he would show it. His expression was softened as he replied, "Well, hello, little lady! And how old are you today?" They chatted for a few minutes, he wished her a happy birthday, and we went our separate ways. A few minutes later, she turned to me and asked, "Can I take a picture with the old man for my birthday" It was the cutest thing ever, and although I wasn't sure if he'd be willing to, I told tier we'd certainly ask.

We found the man a couple of aisles over, and I approached him.__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After a few minutes, I thanked Mr. Dan for spending a bit of time with us._____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5 . Can We Stop Food Longing Through Imaginary Eating?

Are you fighting an urge to reach for chocolate? Then, let it melt in your mind, not in your mouth. According to the recent research, imagining eating a specific food reduces your interest in that food, so you eat less of it.

This reaction to repeated exposure to food—being less interested in something because you’ve experienced it too much—is called habituation.     1    

The research is the first to show that habituation can occur through the power of the mind. “If you just think about the food itself—how it tastes and smells—that will increase your appetite,” said Carey Morewedge, a well-known psychologist. “It might be better to force yourself to repeatedly think about chewing and swallowing the food in order to reduce your longing.     2     Visualizing yourself eating chocolate wouldn’t prevent you from eating lots of cheese,” he added.

Morewedge conducted an interesting experiment. 51 subjects were divided into three groups. One group was asked to imagine putting 30 coins into a laundry machine and then eating three chocolates.     3     Another group was asked to imagine putting three coins into a laundry machine and then eating 30 chocolates. Lastly, a control group imagined just putting 33 coins into the machine—with no chocolates.     4     When they said they had finished, these were taken away and weighed. The results showed the group that had imagined eating 30 chocolates each ate fewer of the chocolates than the other groups.

    5     Physical signals—that full stomach feeling—are only part of what tells us we’ve finished a meal. The research suggests that psychological effects, such as habituation, also influence how much a person eats. It may lead to new behavioral techniques for people looking to eat more healthily, or have control over other habits.

6 . I found out one time that doing a favor for someone could get you into a lot of trouble. I was in the eighth grade at the time, and we were having a final test. During the test, the girl sitting next to me whispered something, but I didn’t: understand. So I leaned over her way and found out that she was trying to ask me if I had an extra pen. She showed me that: hers was out of ink and would not write. I happened to have an extra one, so I took it out of my pocket and put it on her desk.

Later, after the test papers had been turned in, the teacher asked me to stay in the room when all the other students were dismissed(解散). As soon as we were alone she began to talk to me about what it meant to grow up；she talked about how important it was to stand on your own two feet and be responsible (负责任) for your own acts. For a long time, she talked about honesty and emphasized(强调) the fact that when people do something dishonest, they are really cheating(欺骗) themselves. She made me promise that I would think seriously(认真地) about all the things she had said, and then she told me I could leave. I walked out of the room wondering why she had chosen to talk to me about all those things.

Later on, I found out that she thought I had cheated on the test. When she saw me lean over to talk to the girl next to me, it looked as if I was copying answers from the girl’s test paper. I tried to explain about the pen, but all she could say was it seemed very strange to her that I hadn’t talked of anything about the pen the day she talked to me right after the test. Even if I tried to explain that I was just doing the girl a favor by letting her use my pen, I am sure she continued(继续) to believe that I had cheated on the test.