We've seen a worldwide health crisis (危机) bring out the worst in some people, but fortunately, we've also been able to see it bring out the best in others.

A taxi driver in Spain has been providing COVID-19 (新冠肺炎) patients with free rides to and from the hospitals. Doctors and nurses wanted to surprise him with their thanks for helping out.

They tricked him down to the hospital under the pretense of needing to pick up a sick patient, but in reality, doctors and nurses lined the hall waiting to applaud (鼓掌) him.

“This is a surprise that has been given to a taxi driver who takes patients to the hospitals without charge,” wrote the taxi company that first shared the video.

The man seemed completely taken aback by the gesture, stopping in the middle of the doors as the whole room cheered for him.

He was also given an envelope full of money and the satisfying results of his own COVID-19 test.

The video has since been shared tens of thousands of times across the world, because kind gestures break the language barrier (障碍).

“When the crisis is finished, there will have been two types of people... the good and the bad,” one user wrote. “With workmates like him, I am proud to be a taxi driver, son of a taxi driver, and father of a taxi driver.”

With the word in hard times, just knowing good people are there doing good deeds is something we can all appreciate.

Should anger problems also be recognized as an illness like depression and anxiety? Anger is largely viewed as a secondary emotion — one caused by other emotions. People are thought to be angry because they are sad, anxious or stressed. 【小题1】 Today, though, a growing number of mental health experts think that anger is a serious problem that needs its own treatment.

To tell the difference between “normal” anger and “anger problem” is difficult. After all, everyone gets really mad from time to time. Experts point out a few ways.

Disordered anger, as it is sometimes called, tends to be of greater intensity (强度). 【小题2】 An example: While most people would get upset if a driver cut them off, someone with disordered anger might try to chase down the car and force it off the road.

And in cases of disordered anger, the person gets angry more frequently and his/her anger lasts longer.【小题3】 But people with anger problems often stay angry for days, weeks or even years; their feelings of anger don’t disappear over time.

【小题4】 Disordered anger often damages people’s lives. “It interferes (干扰) with people’s relationships and their jobs,” says Raymond Chip Tafrate, a US psychologist. “Even their health is affected.”

Anger clearly increases the risk of certain health problems, as many studies have shown. When people are angry, their hearts beat faster and their blood pressure goes up. 【小题5】

Experts suggest that people with an anger problem take anger-management programs. The programs teach people to control their responses to stressful situations through the use of relaxation techniques. The programs sometimes also include life-skills training to help bring down stress and remove angry feelings.

From Marie Tussaud’s Chamber of Horrors to Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion (鬼屋) to horror-themed escape rooms, haunted house attractions have terrified and delighted audiences around the world for more than 200 years.

These attractions turn out to be good places to study fear. They help scientists understand the body’s response to fright and how we perceive some situations as enjoyably thrilling and others as truly terrible. One surprising finding: having friends close at hand in a haunted house might make you more jumpy, not less so.

Psychologist and study co-author Sarah Tashjian, who is now at the University of Melbourne, and her team conducted their research with 156 adults, who each wore a wireless wrist sensor during their visit. The sensor measured skin responses linked to the body’s reactions to stress and other situations. When the sensor picked up, for example, greater skin conductance — that is, the degree to which the skin can transmit an electric current — that was a sign that the body was more aroused and ready for fight or flight. In addition to this measure, people reported their expected fear (on a scale of 1 to 10) before entering the haunted house and their experienced fear (on the same scale) after completing the haunt.

The scientists found that people who reported greater fear also showed heightened skin responses. Being with friends, Tashjian and her colleagues further found, increased physiological arousal during the experience, which was linked to stronger feelings of fright. In fact, the fear response was actually weaker when people went through the house in the presence of strangers.

Other investigators have used haunted houses to understand how fear and enjoyment can coexist. In a 2020 study led by Marc Malmdorf Andersen, a member of the Recreational Fear Lab at Aarhus University in Denmark, scientists joined forces with Dystopia Haunted House. The Danish attraction includes such terrifying experiences as being chased by “Mr. Piggy”, a large, chain-saw-wielding man wearing a bloody butcher’s apron and pig mask. People between the ages of 12 and 57 were video recorded at peak moments during the attraction, wore heart-rate monitors throughout and reported on their experience. People’s fright was tied to large-scale heart-rate fluctuations; their enjoyment was linked to small-scale ones. The results suggest that fear and enjoyment can happen together when physiological arousal is balanced “just right”.