Sometimes, you just can't help it. Maybe you're watching a sad movie, or thinking about the friend who moved away. Next thing you know, you feel pressure in your throat, your eyes are watering, and you have tears running down your cheeks.
According to Ad Vingerhoets, a professor of psychology at Tilburg University, in the Netherlands, who is one of the few scientists in the world who have studied crying, there are three types of tears. Basal tears are the first type. They act as a protective barrier between the eye and the rest of the world. Next are reflex tears. They wash your eyes clean when something gets in them. Finally, there are emotional tears. "These are released in response to emotional states, "explains Vingerhoets.
Scientists believe crying has something to do with how humans developed and learnt to depend on each other. "Humans are very complex social creatures, "says Lauren Bylsma, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania. "It seems that tears serve to arouse help and support from others, "she says.
Vingerhoets agrees, "I think that the reason why humans shed tears(流眼泪) has something to do with our childhood, "he says. "that's the time when we are still dependent on adults for love and protection and care. The major advantage of emotional tears is that you can target them at a specific person. "Vingerhoets says this ability could have come in handy in prehistoric times, when humans were living among dangerous animals. Tears were a safer way to get attention. "In this case, it is better to use a silent signal to ask for help, " he says.
Vingerhoets and Byhma do frequent studies to better understand why humans cry. According to Byhma, there is still much more to discover. "It's surprising, "she says, "How much we still don't know. "
The bicycling craze came in when we were just about at the right age to enjoy it. At first even "safety" bicycles were too dangerous and improper for ladies to ride, and they had to have tricycles. My mother had (I believe) the first female tricycle in Cambridge; and I had a little one, and we used to go out for family rides all together; my father in front on a bicycle, and my poor brother Charles standing miserable on the bar behind my mother. I found it very hard work, pounding(轰隆隆行进) away on my hard tyres; a glorious, but not a pleasurable pastime.
Then, one day at lunch, my father said he had just seen a new kind of tyre, filled up with air, and he thought it might be a success. And soon after that everyone had bicycles, ladies and all; and bicycling became the smart thing, and the lords and ladies had their pictures in the papers, riding along in the park, in straw boater hats(硬草帽).
My mother must have fallen off her bicycle pretty often, for I remember seeing the most appalling cuts and bruises(青肿) on her legs. But she never complained, and always kept these mishaps(灾祸) to herself. However, the great Mrs Phillips, our cook, always knew all about them; as indeed she knew practically everything that ever happened. She used to draw us into the servants' hall to tell us privately:"Her Ladyship had a nasty fall yesterday; she cut both her knees and sprained her wrist. But don't let her know I told you. "So we never dared to say anything. Similar little accidents used to occur when, at the age of nearly seventy, she insisted on learning to drive a car. She never mastered the art of reversing(倒车), and was in every way an unconventional and terrifying driver. Mrs Phillips used to tell us:"Her Ladyship ran into the back of a milk-cart yesterday; but it wasn't much hurt"; or "A policeman stopped her Ladyship because she was on the wrong side of the road; but she said she didn't know what the white line on the road meant, so he explained and let her go on. "Mrs Phillips must have had an excellent Intelligence Service at her command, for the stories were always true enough.
