Before I studied psychology, I used to think that people would laugh when funny things occurred. While I was right about that, I discovered there are lots of other psychological factors that make people laugh other than the funny part of a joke. When someone laughs at a joke, there will usually be more than one reason that makes him laugh—and the more reasons there are, the more powerful the joke will be.

    I was attending a stand-up comedy show in Egypt, and when the man started to make fun of pedestrians crossing streets, everyone laughed their hearts out. The main reason those people strongly laughed was that almost all of them felt angry towards pedestrians who crossed streets carelessly. The joke wasn't only funny, it also made the audience feel that they were right about being angry at those pedestrians. That is, people were laughing both because of the funny joke and because of the happiness experienced as a result of the psychological support they got.

    The better a joke makes a person feel, and the more it includes other psychological factors, the more the person will like it. For example, if you envy one of your friends, and someone tells a joke that is funny and, at the same time, makes your friend seem stupid, then you will probably laugh at it louder than if you weren't jealous of him.

    In short, we don't laugh only when we hear something funny; we also laugh when we experience some kind of happiness that results from the other psychological factors involved in the joke. I strongly discourage making fun of anyone or belittling someone to make someone else laugh. All I want to explain is that if your joke supports a person's emotions, he will certainly like it a lot.

    E-mail has been widely used since its invention for its convenience, efficiency, and high speed. However, it is wise to remember how easily this wonderful technology can be misused, sometimes unintentionally, but can result in serious consequences.

    Now let's look at the case of the Illinois man who left the snow-filled streets of Chicago for a vacation in Florida. His wife was on a business trip and was planning to meet him there the next day. When he reached his hotel , he decided to send his wife a quick E-mail. Unable to find the note with his wife's E-mail address, he did his best to type from his memory. Unfortunately, he missed one letter and his E-mail was directed to an elderly lady whose husband had passed away (去世) only the day before. When the sad widow checked her E-mail, she took one look at the screen, let out a sharp cry, and fell to the floor in a dead faint (昏迷 ). At the sound , her family rushed into the room and saw this note on the screen:

    MY DEAREST WIFE： JUST GOT CHECKED IN. EVERYTHING PREPARED FOR YOUR ARRIVAL TOMORROW.

    P.S. SURE IS HOT DOWN HERE

     When Regina Spektor moved to the Bronx from Russia as a young child of 9, she could speak no English and her family was so poor that they could afford nothing. Yet she carried with her a love of the piano and music.

     "For me, the thing that I loved the most was playing the piano, so when we left Russia I was so afraid I would forget how to play and I would just find a little table and play my pieces," she told "When you spend your life doing something like playing the piano and then you take that away, it's so surreal."(离奇的)

     Her father, Ilya Spektor, said that, little by little, the family saved enough money to afford their first apartment.

     "I was a photographer and, in six weeks, I found my first job in a big photo lab in Manhattan," he said. On the subway one day, Ilya Spektor spotted a man carrying a violin case. The man also seemed to have an Eastern European accent. A conversation led to a visit and, eventually, Regina Spektor was introduced to Sonia Vargas, a piano teacher. She was a well-known professor who taught piano, took Spektor under her wing and trained her for years, at no cost. "I remember talking to Sonia," Spektor said. "She said that when a student is ready, a teacher appears. So she said that I must have been ready to study piano, and so that's why she came into my life."

     "Immediately, how she played," Vargas said. "You can tell the sound. The sound tell you whether the person loves the instrument, loves the music."

     Much later, while playing her own music and selling a CD that she'd created, Regina Spektor caught the attention of a music producer. The rest is history, complete with concerts around the world and performance in front of the Obamas at the White House.

Regina Spektor greatly appreciated her parents, piano teachers and friends for helping her become the musician she is. “I love the idea that if you're walking toward the world, the world will take some steps towards you,” she said.

    We all know the hard work that filmmakers and actors put in to provide us with entertainment, but it seems that even regular moviegoers like us have a big impact on how a movie turns out too.

    For decades now, film studios have used so-called test screenings（试映）to get feedback from members of the public before a movie comes out.

    While test audience members are usually asked to fill in a questionnaire after a screening, telling the film studio what they liked and didn't like, media giant Disney has come up with a more high-tech solution.

    According to a paper published this summer by the company's researchers, Disney is measuring test audiences' reactions(反应) by using special cameras placed inside cinemas.

    Pairing the cameras with custom(定制的) software, the company can track what each audience member is feeling at any point in the movie, from anger to joy.

    This works by mapping 68 different points on each audience member's face. The cameras can see in the dark, and the software can figure out a person's mood based on the slightest of facial expressions.

    It is hoped that this new method will allow more detailed feedback from test audiences. Rather than relying on audience members to recall their feelings after the movie's over, it can accurately read their reactions in real-time.

    Test screenings are highly valued in the movie industry, and several well- known movies have been greatly altered following feedback.

    Viewers of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial(1982) would have left the cinema feeling a whole lot differently if it weren't for its test audience's feedback.

    "In one cut of the film that was tested, E.T. died instead of going home in his spaceship. You won't be surprised to hear that the test audience in question didn't warm to this ending at all," wrote media website Den of Geek.

    But for those of us who are concerned about privacy, the cameras won't be installed in public cinemas.

    After all, unless you're part of a test audience, being in front of the camera is best left to the movie stars.

    Age has never been a problem for 16-year-old Thessalonika Arzu-Embry. After all, she's already got her master's degree.

    The North Chicago-area teen started homeschooling at the age of 4. She began having an influence on others soon after. When she was 6 years old, she was an inspirational speaker at an organization called Tabitha House Community Service, a shelter for people who were forced to leave their homes due to the situations such as earthquake, flood and other natural disasters.

    At the age of 11, she graduated from high school and then earned her bachelor's degree in psychology in 2013. She completed those classes online as she was traveling for church events and leadership meetings.

    She doesn't stop there, though. The teen plans to focus on aviation psychology（航空心理学） for her further study, a decision inspired by her father who is a pilot. She grew up around airplanes and took fights all the time. Her goal is to use it to determine whether pilots are dealing with problems that could have deadly results once the plane takes off -- a topic that has been in the news lately. For her, it's a mix of two of her interests.

    In her free time, Thessalonika enjoys playing tennis, swimming and being active in her youth group at church. She also has three self-published books, which are on her site. Jump the Education Barrier is written to help students finish college, and in the future aims to help business owners with trends. Her third book The Genius Race, has a wider appeal. It is designed to help people to be geniuses in various areas of life.