新编大学英语第一册unit2-Text-D-Comforting-Thoughts.docxVIP

UNIT 2 AFTER-CLASS READING 3; New College English (I) Comforting Thoughts First I read about a study in Meriden, Connecticut, which indicated that talking to yourself is a perfectly good way of getting comfort during a difficult time. Then I saw an item about research at Yale demonstrating that stress seems to be reduced in some people by exposing them to the aromas of certain?desserts. Then I started talking to myself about desserts with aromas I find soothing. Then I felt a lot better. Isnt science grand? I didnt feel perfect. One thing that was bothering me was that the ten most popular methods of comforting yourself listed in the Meriden study didnt mention sniffing desserts, even though Yale, where all the sniffing research was going on, is only about twenty miles down the road. Does this mean that some of these scientists are so busy talking to themselves that they dont talk to each other? It got me so upset that I went to the back door of a baker in our neighborhood to sniff the aroma of chocolate chip cookies. I was talking to myself the whole time, of course. What the Yale people think, I said to myself, is that a person is soothed by the smell of, say, chocolate chip cookies because it brings back pleasant memories, like the memory of his mother baking chocolate chip cookies. What if his mother always burned the chocolate chip cookies? I replied. Are you talking about my mother? Whose mother do you think Im talking about? I said. Were the only ones here. Were those cookies burnt? What do you think all that black stuff was? I thought that was the chocolate chips. No, she always forgot the chocolate chips. I wasnt finding the conversation very comforting at all. I dont like to hear anyone make light of my mothers chocolate chip cookies, even me. I must have raised my voice, because the next thing I knew, the baker had come out to see what was going on. Even though the Meriden study had shown that being with someone else was the most comforting thing o