Two major fortune telling systems prevailVTense {1} in human society for centuries; the Chinese zodiac and {***}MissingW {2}Western horoscope. Legend has it that Buddha let the first twelve animals come to the meeting to be honored in the order of arrival; that is, Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Chicken, Dog, and Pig. Fortune-tellers describe one's personality by the animal of the year in which he was born. They think people will have the disposition and act just like the animal of the year.

Western astrologers believe in constellations: Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius. They also predict one's behavior on the basis of the sign of the month in which one was born.

I started to touchWChoice {3} astrology from the Internet and wasWChoice {4} kind of an expert forPreposition {5} it when I was a junior high school student. I know all details about telling what a person would be like{6} simply by his constellation. But last summer after I read a story on an experiment{7}, my firm belief in Western astrology was suddenly shattered. The experiment was conductorWForm {8} by a professor who told his students that he would send personality descriptions to each student based on his sign, and they had to return their comments on whether those descriptions matched their real personalities or not. And it turned out that most students thought those descriptions perfectly matched what they were really like. But in fact, the professor sent out exactly the same descriptions to every student.

You might wonder if I will neverWChoice {9} believe in {***}MissingWWestern astrology againCut and start to turn to Chinese zodiac{10}. I guess I will still refer to astrology{11} from time to time whenever I feel the need of it{12}. But I will definitely start to study our ancient'sWChoice {13} wisdom on fortune telling, the Chinese zodiac, in order to get a more complete understanding of human as a whole. But I will alwaysCut keep in mind that information is only for reference{14} and that each person has his own uniqueness you can never tell with simply knowing his sign and year of birth{15}. You have to spend a large amount of time with someone before you can really understand what he is really like.

Psychology 92135050 Zhang, Zhu-yun

All rights are reserved by Cynthia Yu 2004.March.