In 1975, George Carlin appeared on a popular TV show, Saturday Night Live, with his famous words about blue food. “Why is there no blue food? I can't find blue food—I can't find the flavor of blue! I mean yellow is lemon; orange is orange and red is cherry. Where is the blue food?”

    Well, Carlin pretty much has it right—there is not no blue food, but there's certainly not a lot of it. Fresh-picked blueberries are blue, though they become purple when they are turned into jam. The blue in blueberries—like the purple in grapes and red in tomatoes—is found in nature. But it isn't a hot color for food. People don't seem to prefer blue food. Some diet programs even suggest that those determined to lose weight should make their food blue.

    Eating, in part, begins with our eyes. Chares Spence—an experimental psychologist from Oxford University—points out that color can change our taste experience. Commonly, we consider red-colored foods up to 20% sweeter than they actually are; and green foods as being more sour. Spence suggests: human expectations may be influenced by our long history of watching—green fruits can become sweet as they grow up and turn red.

    But what about blue? Except blueberries, much of the blue food we see these days is dyed blue artificially. Food producers argue that artificial color doesn't do much damage to health. A lot of research shows that some physical problems of kids are related to food dyes—while other studies show no effects at all. Blue birthday cake or even blue-dyed chicken can be served on the dinner table. So what?

    In the mid-1950s, I was a somewhat bored early-adolescent male student who believed that ________________________ One day, this approach threw me into embarrassment

    In Mrs. Totten's eighth-grade math class at Central Avenue School in Anderson, Indiana, we were learning to add and subtract decimals (小数).

    Our teacher typically assigned daily homework, which would be recited in class the following day. On most days, our grades were based on our oral answer to homework questions.

    Mrs. Totten usually walked up and down the rows of desks requesting answers from student after student in the order the questions had appeared on our homework sheets. She would start either at the front or the back of the classroom and work toward the other end.

    Since I was seated near the middle of about 35 students, it was easy to figure out which questions I might have to answer. This particular time, I had completed my usual two or three problems according to my calculations.

    What I failed to expect was that several students were absent, which threw off my estimate. As Mrs. Totten made her way from the beginning of the class，I desperately tried to determine which math problem I would get. I tried to work it out before she got to me, but I had brain freeze and couldn't function.

When Mrs. Totten reached my desk，she asked what answer I'd got for problem No. 14. “I…I didn't get anything,” I answered，and my face felt warm.

    “Correct,” she said.

    It turned out that the correct answer was zero.

What did I learn that day? First, always do all your homework. Second, in real life it isn't always what you say but how you say it that matters. Third，I would never make it as a mathematician.

    If I could choose one school day that taught me the most, it would be that one.

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    In October, I told the eight-year-olds in the class I teach in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, about my plan. "Since all of you have done extra jobs around the house to earn some money," I said. "Then we'll buy food for a Thanksgiving dinner for someone who might not have a nice dinner otherwise."

    I watched them while they walked up and down the supermarket. "Flowers!" Kristine cried. The group rushed toward the holiday plants.

    "You can't eat flowers."——It was more sensible(明智的) to use any extra money to buy something that could be transformed(转换，转变) into meals.

    "But Mrs. Sherlock," came the begging voice, "we want flowers."

    Defeated finally, I put a pot of "funny" purple(紫色的) mums in the cart full of foods. "She'll like this one," the children agreed.

    An organization had given us the name and address of a needy grandmother who had lived alone for many years. We finally pulled up in front of a small house. A slightly built woman with a weary face came to the door to welcome us.

    My little group ran to get the food. As each box was carried in, the old woman kept on saying "Thanks"—much to her visitors' pleasure. When Amy put the mums on the counter, the woman seemed surprised. She's wishing it was a bag of flour(面粉), I thought.

    We returned to the car. As we fastened our seat belts, we could see the kitchen window. The woman inside waved goodbye, then turned and walked across the room, past the turkey, past the goods, straight to the mums. She put her face in their petal. When she raised her head, there was a smile on her lips. She was transformed before our eyes.

    The children were quiet. At that moment, they had seen for themselves the power they possessed(拥有) to make another's life better. The children had sensed(感到) that sometimes a person needs a bunch of funny purple flowers on a dark November day.

    Schoolgirl Lorna O'Brien was in her kitchen when she looked out of the window and was terrified (惊恐的) at what she saw. "Help!" she shouted. "There's smoke and fire coming out of the kitchen window opposite."

    Her father, John, ran across to the house while her 15­year­old brother Paul called the fire service. Lorna, 16, rushed across and caught up with her dad, who had just kicked open the front door. They looked upstairs where they saw smoke coming out of the top flat. Lorna followed her father into the flat, where they found a pan (平底锅) on fire in the kitchen and the young mother, Mane Linn, who had been asleep, passed out (失去意识) in the smoke­blackened sitting room. Lorna's dad threw a wet cloth over the pan and then turned off the stove (炉子) before starting to help Mane through the smoke down the stairs to safety.

    Suddenly Mane started crying, "My baby, my baby!" "Where's the baby?" asked Lorna. "In the bedroom," Mane shouted back. While John pulled the crying mother from the house, Lorna, without a thought for her own safety, turned back to search for the baby. She found the little girl, 14­month­old Ann, lying with her eyes closed.

    Lorna quickly took the baby, rushed downstairs through the fire and smoke. "It didn't cross my mind at the time that I was near to dying when I rushed through the smoke，" said Lorna. "I was just thinking of the baby. Even after I came out of the house, I wasn't frightened."

    When help arrived, baby Ann and her mum were taken to hospital for treatment. It was only when Lorna got back into the safety of her own house that she realised the danger she had faced. "I started shaking all over and thought of what could have happened to me，" she said.

    If you wear glasses, chances are you are smarter. Research published in the famous British journal Nature Communications has found that people who displayed higher levels of intelligence were almost 30 percent more likely to wear glasses.

    The scientists studied the genes of thousands of people between the ages of 16 and 102.The study showed intelligence can be connected to physical characteristics. One characteristic was eyesight. In out of 10 people who were more intelligent, there was a higher chance they needed glasses. Scientists also said being smarter has other benefits. It is connected to better health.

    It is important to remember these are connections which are not proven causes. Scientists call this correlation. Just because something is connected to something else does not mean one of those things caused the other. And it's worth noting that what constitutes intelligence is subjective and can be difficult, if not impossible, to measure.

    Forget genes though. Plenty of proof shows wearing glasses makes people think you are more intelligent, even if you do not need glasses. A number of studies have found people who wear glasses are seen as smarter, hard-working and honest. Many lawyers use this idea to help win their cases. Lawyer Harvey Solves explained this. Glasses soften their appearance. He said sometimes there has been a huge amount of proof showing that people he was defending broke the law. He had them wear glasses and they weren't found guilty.

    Glasses are also used to show someone is intelligent in movies and on TV. Ideas about people who wear glasses have begun to shift. People who do not need glasses sometimes wear them for fashion only. They want to look worldly or cool. But not everyone is impressed by this idea, though. GQ magazine said people who wear glasses for fashion are trying too hard to look smart and hip (时髦的). However, that hasn't stopped many celebrities from happily wearing glasses even if they do not need them. Justin Bieber is just one high-profile fan of fashion glasses.