COURTESY PAUL BOZYMOWSKI-Three New York City police officers paid for a woman’s groceries rather than arresting her.

As temperatures approached 90 degrees in New York City last July 4th, three police officers ducked into a Whole Foods Market to get something cold to drink. What they walked into was a heated human drama.

Once inside, the cops, Lt. Louis Sojo and Officers Esanidy Cuevas and Michael Rivera, were approached by a store security guard who asked for help with a suspected shoplifter. The woman in question didn’t have the look of a career criminal. She was obviously scared, and her cheeks were wet with tears.

The cops peeked inside her bag. “All we saw was containers of food.” Cuevas told CBS New York.

"I’m hungry," she explained quietly.

Caught red-handed, the woman no doubt expected to be sentenced to jail for the crime of being hungry while poor. But the cops had other ideas. “We’ll pay for her food,” Sojo told the surprised security guard.

There’d been no discussion among the three men. It went unsaid. Instead, they picked up the woman’s bag and accompanied her to a cash register, where each took out $10 to pay the tab. She would not be arrested today.

All the woman could do was weep in gratitude. Covering her face with a kerchief and drying her eyes, she repeated, “Thank you, thank you.”

She wasn’t the only one touched by this act of mercy. “It was a very beautiful, genuine moment,” says Paul Bozymowski, who was at the store. He was so taken by what he’d witnessed that he posted a photo on Twitter for all to see.

But attention was never what the officers sought. They were driven by a far more common emotion. As Sojo told CNN, “When you look at someone’s face and see that they need you and they’re actually hungry, it’s pretty difficult as a human being to walk away from something like this.”

It’s not easy to be a good neighbor because you have to be patient, kind, understanding and helpful. But we all like it when a neighbor helps us or stands by us in our time of need. So if you want to show your appreciation (感激) to your neighbors, Here are a few ideas that can help you.

Bake things for them. 【小题1】 I think that is the best way to show your appreciation to your neighbors. Bake something you know they like and take it over to their places. Not only will they understand how glad you are for their help but you will also prove to be a good neighbor yourself.

Invite them to your place. If your neighbors are good, you can always invite them to your house for some tea or coffee. That is a great way to show appreciation. 【小题2】

Help them whenever they need help. What can show appreciation better than helping your neighbors when they are in time of need? 【小题3】 So if you truly want to show how much you value your neighbors’ presence, help them out whenever possible even if you have to go out of your way for doing that.

Write a letter of appreciation. Actions speak louder than words. 【小题4】 Write a thank-you note to neighbors who do something good for you to show your appreciation.

【小题5】 Once your neighbors act like good neighbors by looking after your pet while you go away on a vacation or helping you around your house, offer to do the same for them. Avoid any misunderstanding when you communicate your wish to return the help in the future.

Social phobia (社交恐惧症) is an anxiety disorder with strong fear in social situations. People with social phobia feel paralyzing fear (麻痹性恐惧) when other people are around, as well as nervousness, pain or shyness.【小题1】

Learn to relax. People with social phobia often have what is known as anticipatory (预期的) anxiety.【小题2】 For this we have to learn to relax instead of anticipating the fear of the future situation.

Look for social situations. If we always avoid social situations out of fear, it is very difficult for us to be able to overcome them.【小题3】In this way, when a social event arrives that we want to attend or take part in, we will be better able to be comfortable in it.

【小题4】 Imagination can play tricks on us in social situations. In most cases you are afraid of things that have not happened or are not happening. We have to be especially careful what we think others may be thinking of us.

Be yourself. To some degree, social phobia is caused by the belief that we have to be perfect as others expect.【小题5】 So we do not have to focus so much on what others may think of us, but on feeling comfortable with ourselves without having to be perfect.