A) affect F) extremely K) practice B) beliefs G) guilty L) positive C) confused H) mention M) remain D) exert I) negative N) responsible E) expected J) objects O) significantly According to a recent study, the idea of aging might look different through the eyes of little children. A good number of children aged three to five seemed to think that birthday parties were 1 for making people grow older. According to those kids, if people don’t have a birthday party, they 2 the same age. Developmental psychologist Jacqueline Woolley compiled two studies in which they tested children’s understanding of aging by telling them stories. The researchers told them a story about a child who had no birthday party. Then, a story about a child who had two birthday parties. After hearing the stories, the children were asked to tell the age of each character. Woolley’s team 3 that 4-and 5-year-olds would do 4 better than 3-year-olds at reporting the age of the character in each story. But for the story, in which a child had two birthday parties, all the kids seemed 5 . The researchers also tested children’s 6 about the way adults age by telling a story about a woman who does not want to grow older. Seventy-one percent of three-year-olds responded with 7 answers. The older kids did better on that question, and all of the kids were able to correctly answer the other questions about the woman’s age. Children as young as three understand the idea that living things grow and 8 do not. But birthday parties are a cultural 9 . So the researchers set out to study how a piece of culture might 10 the way children think about an idea that overlaps culture and biology.