9th Grade Reading Comprehension (2 passages, free)

When Grandpa Joon moved into the care home, he gave Mina his watch. “It runs slow,” he warned, “but it never stops.” She wore it every day, even when friends teased her about the scratched leather strap.

The watch lost four minutes a week. Every Sunday, Mina reset it while Grandpa watched from his armchair, nodding as if she were performing an important ceremony.

In spring, his memory began to slip. Some Sundays he called her by her mother’s name. But each time she twisted the tiny crown on the watch, his eyes cleared for a moment, and he would say, “Four minutes. Always four minutes.”

Years later, Mina still resets the watch every Sunday. It is slow, scratched and old-fashioned. It is also, she has decided, exactly on time.

Researchers often describe a habit as a loop with three parts: a cue, a routine and a reward. The cue is a trigger, like a time of day or a feeling. The routine is the behavior itself. The reward is the benefit the brain receives, which makes it more likely to repeat the loop.

Because habits are automatic, they free up mental energy. Brushing your teeth does not require careful decision-making, which leaves your attention available for other tasks.

The same automatic quality makes bad habits hard to break. Simply relying on willpower often fails. Many psychologists suggest a different approach: keep the cue and the reward, but change the routine. Someone who snacks when bored might take a short walk instead, which still provides a break and a change of scene.

Small changes, repeated consistently, are usually more effective than dramatic resolutions that are abandoned within weeks.