I’d been waitressing for months, earning extra money for college. “Since it’s not too busy, go and see if Ray wants any more coffee,” my boss said to me as he pointed to an older man sitting in the corner.

Ray was holding the cup in his hand as he stared out of the window. He was a re gular lunch customer on Mondays and Fridays.

“Can I refill the cup for you, Ray?” I asked. He looked up with a peaceful smile and held his cup out toward me. “You know, I’ve been coming here for several years, and I have to say you have the nicest smile,” he whispered. “Can you sit for minutes... please?”

I sat down and he smiled,   “Your smile reminds me of my granddaughter, Sharon.” He took out a picture of her from his wall et and handed it to me. “She graduated from college last year.”

“What a nice-looking girl!” I said. “Does she live near you?”

Ray shook his head as he put the picture back in his wallet. “She moved to California last year. I miss her a lot. She and I used to have lunch together on Monday s and Fridays,”   he said. “She now wants me to move out there to be closer to her.”

“So, why don’t you?”

“I don’t know if I really want to move. I’ve been here all my life,” he answered.

I heard my boss calling me. “I guess that’s meant for me,” I said as I stood up.

We smiled at each other. “Ray……if my grandfather had been like you, I’d have asked him day and night to move closer to me, too.”   I patted his shoulder. “Don’t wait too long. Nice talking with you...”

For the next couple of weeks, Ray continued to come on Mondays and Fridays. But on that Monday of Thanksgiving week, he didn’t show up. Then one Wednesday afternoon, walking out to my car after work, I heard a voice call my name from across the parking lot.

It was Ray, hurrying to catch up to me.

“Have you made up your mind to move?” I asked.

9 . Every decision we make is arrived at through hugely complex neurological processing. Although it feels as though you have a choice, the action that you ‘decide’ to take is entirely directed by automatic neural activity. Brain imaging studies show that a person’s action can be predicted by their brain activity up to 10 seconds before they themselves become aware they are going to act. Multiple neuroscientific studies show that even those important decisions that feel worked out are just as automatic as knee-jerk reactions (膝跳反应) (although more complex).

Decision-making starts with the amygdala: a set of two almond-shaped nuclei (杏仁状核) buried deep within the brain, which generate emotion. The amygdala registers the information streaming in through our senses and responds to it in less than a second, sending signals throughout the brain. These produce an urge to run, fight, freeze or grab, according to how the amygdala values various stimuli.

Before we act on the amygdala’s signals, however, the information is usually processed by other brain areas, including some that produce conscious thoughts and emotions. Areas concerned with recognition work out what’s going on, those concerned with memory compare it with previous experiences, and those concerned with reasoning, judging and planning get to work on constructing various action plans. The best plan—if we are lucky—is then selected and carried out. If any of this process goes wrong, we are likely to hesitate, or do something silly.

The various stages of decision-making are marked by different types of brain activity. Fast (gamma)waves, with frequencies of 25 to 100 Hz, produce a keen awareness of the multiple factors that need to be taken into account to arrive at a decision. If you are trying to choose a sandwich, for instance, gamma waves generated in various cells within the ‘taste’ area of the brain bring to mind and compare the taste of ham, hummus, wholemeal, sourdough, and so on. Although it may seem useful to be aware of the full range of choice, too much information makes decision-making more difficult, so irrelevant factors get dismissed quickly and unconsciously.

After this comparison stage, the brain switches to slow-wave activity (12 to 30 Hz). This extinguishes most of the gamma activity, leaving just a single ‘hotspot’ of gamma waves which marks the chosen option.

Although there is no ‘you’ outside your brain to direct what it’s doing, you can help it to make good decisions by placing yourself in a situation which is likely to make the process run more smoothly. Doing something that is physically or mentally stimulating before making a decision will help your brain produce the initial gamma waves that generate awareness of the competing options. Getting over-excited, on the other hand, will prevent the switch to the slow brainwaves, making it much harder to single out a choice.

10 . It started with a bit of casual discomfort on the head, but after a week it had spread to the back of my neck, enough to lead me to my laptop. Annoying as it was, I was ________ to take up my doctor’s time with such a silly complaint and then have a wasted journey only to be informed that it would clear up by itself and that ________ would be of no use at all.

As soon as I’d tapped in ‘online self-diagnosis’, the search engine provided me with over 11.5 million results. And during the time normally spent in the clinic’s waiting room reading the Women’s Weekly, I was able to find a site that would provide a free ________ in the comfort of my chair, and with no need for an appointment,

I answered all the questions until I eventually reached a description exactly matching my ________. As I clicked on ‘More Information’, I was hit with what I’d never anticipated. The worst case scenario was complete hair loss. I couldn’t have been more ________.

I headed off to the doctor for what I thought would be a blood test but which turned out to be a valuable lesson in not ________ everything you read on the internet. It took him less than a minute to guess at and locate head lice (虱子). I was relieved to know that I would be ________ my hair, and horrified to know that it was being occupied.

I learnt my lesson, but for some the worry caused by ________ every ache has led to a new form of hypochondria (疑病症). Named ‘cyberchondria’ by the print media back in 2000, this particular condition has ________ greatly. Although most people’s main point of call is still the doctor’s surgery, it’s estimated that ________ worries are now the second most researched topic on the web. This is truly a serious concern when about 25%of the medical information online is thought to be ________.

Once upon a time, hypochondria required time and effort: you had to go to the library to research your diseases and ________ go through the books. Now it’s just a matter of a few clicks of a mouse. But while your doctor will make a diagnosis ________ your age, appearance and medical history, a search engine will rely simply on algorithms (算法). These come up with results graded according to popularity or numbers of key words. So the most highly ranked hits might actually be for very genuine disease, which are nonetheless extremely ________. One minute you think you’ve come down with the flu, the next you’re under attack from sub-tropical, flesh-eating bacteria. Time spent going to the doctor’s for ________ of mind suddenly seems fair enough.