Tuesday, July 7, 2015

what goes on?

“I wonder how he feels about me. I wish I could read his mind.” Such a wish seems impossible to fulfill. However, an American psychologist claims it isn’t.
In communication, nonverbal factors, such as facial expressions, play an important role. Following his experiments, the psychologist said, “Even if a person tries to hide his or her real emotion, a very brief facial expression often occurs unconsciously. If you notice it, you can tell what the person is really thinking.” Facial expressions last for only a fraction of a second, so you need to develop special skills to perceive them. With these skills, you could know others’ hidden thoughts.
Suppose you had a new hairstyle and your friend said, “That’s cool!” With your new skills, you would know her real thoughts: “Her old hairstyle was cuter.” Do you really want to know others’ thoughts? Oh, never mind, I already know.

I underlined the phrase, “read his mind” and asked my students to look for 4 phrases which have the same meaning.

The answers are:
“tell what the person is really thinking”
“know others’ hidden thoughts”
“know her real thoughts”
“know others’ thoughts”

And I introduced the Beatles’ phrase, “what goes on in your heart, what goes on in your mind.”

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