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What do you think?

• Can positive stress be good for us?

• Do you know how to control stress?

Stress is not something you can see or touch. Yet it is there, inside, whether you recognise it or not. And the first step to controlling stress is to recognise and identify it.

There are three main techniques used for coping with stress.

1. Confront the situation: learn to recognise the situations which cause you stress and think about why they do. Remember that doing something about stress, in the long run, less stressful than doing nothing.

2. Avoid the situation: for example, it you find it stressful to work in a noisy environment, it may by possible to find somewhere else to work. It’s easy to decide which situations to confront and which ones to avoid.

3. Relax: stress causes tension and tension causes stress. Find relaxation techniques to suit you. try breathing deeply or counting to ten when you recognise a stressful situation.

Ex. 21. a) Look at the stress test below and examine each situation

carefully.

Then tick the column which reflects your feelings about each situation. Don’t think too deeply about each item. It is best to give your first impressions, your immediate feelings, to each item. Work put your total stress score when you have completed the test.

To help you understand what your STRESS SCORE means, look at the table below.

SCORES

1 – 20 You are very relaxed and can cope with most things. You’re used dealing with situations which most people fins stressful.

21 – 40 Mild levels of stress are actually good for you. If you had a stress-free life, you would probably stop having fun. but you may find it difficult to face anything out of the ordinary.

41 – 60 This may be a warning that you need to reduce the stress you feel in everyday life. You’re used to living a fairly routine life and feel stress at the idea of something new. Be careful! Stress can be dangerous.

b) Look at the situations in the questionnaire again.

Tell what situations are stressful from your point of view. How do you cope with them? tell what you’ve used to.

I’m used to speaking in public.

I’m used to traffic jams.

Cfs. Tired All the Time

CF S

chromic fatigue syndrome

[`krnik] [f`ti:g] [`sindrom]

синдром хронической усталости

to be prone to – быть склонным к …

to be exhausted [ig`z:stid] – быть истощенным, измученным

to transmit [trænz`mit] - передавать

contagious [kn`teid s] - заразный

susceptible [s`septbl] – чувствительный, восприимчивый

Ex. 1.Read the text with a dictionary.

How common is chronic fatigue?

Estimates range from ten thousand cases

to as many as five million

The real number is somewhere in between – about 1 per cent of the population, or 2,4 million people. Most of them are in their twenties and thirties. And there are twice as many women as men.

Why are young woman more prone?

It isn’t cleat yet. it may be simply that women are more likely to go to doctors, so they’re diagnosed more frequently. But it could be hormonal, though doctors can’t explain why.

Why is CFS so hard to diagnose?

Because at first glance CFS looks like something – or everything – else. CFS has similar symptoms other diseases. It also resembles a variety of psychiatric illnesses – depression, panic disorder. There’s no test that can say, yes, you have CFS, or no, you don’t. So the diagnosis becomes a process of ruling out all these other diseases.

What are the symptoms of CFS?

Persistent flulike aches and fatigue – you’re really exhausted, to the point that you can’t get out of bed for at least four to six months. That sounds like a long time, but anything less than that could just be a prolonged virus, and CFS is more than a prolonged virus.

The symptoms are: mild fever; sore throat; lymph node swelling and/ or tenderness; muscle weakness; muscle aches; prolonged fatigue; headaches; joint pait; neuropsychologic complaints – depression, forgetfulness, inability to concentrate, and sleep disturbances. For a doctor to officially diagnose CFS, a patient must have eight symptoms for a period of at least six months.

How does the illness usually start?

Patients might initially feel tired and achy, then feel worse over a period of three to six months, become increasingly exhausted from even minimal activity, and have more sore throats and muscle and joint aches. Sometimes they’re very restless all the time and can’t get to sleep. Some patients complain of extreme vertigo.

Is cfs contagious?

No one knows – we’re not sure how it’s transmitted. I think it probably is contagious and that certain people, perhaps because of a faulty immune system, are more susceptible than others. Nevertheless, some patients have families, boyfriends, and friends who are perfectly fine.

Ex. 2. Read the words correctly.

Psychiatric, hypochondria, sclerosis, symptom, chronic, to diagnose, experience, fatigue, depression, physical, virus, lymph, neuropsychologic, patient, syndrome, muscle, immune system.

Ex. 3. Choose the suitable word to complete the sentence and translate it.

1. Some patients complain of extreme головокружение.

a) pain b) fatigue c) disturbance d) vertigo

2. Doctors think CFS is probably заразна.

a) definitive b) prolonged c) contagious d) harmful

3. CFS is hard to diagnose because it находит/имеет сходство Lyme disease, mild sclerosis, depression, panic disorder, hypochondria.

a) looks like b) goes c) makes d) resembles

4. CFS is more than a длительный virus.

a) contagious b) prolonged c) exhausted d) cognitive

5. Боли в горле are among other symptoms of CFS.

a) headaches b) joint pain c) lymph node swelling d) sore throat

6. No one knows how CFS is передается:

a) transmitted b) exhausted c) heard d) caused.

Ex. 4. Add suffix –ness and make the nouns from the adjectives.

Happy, weak, tired, tender, ill, forgetful.

Ex.5. From the list of symptoms choose the most important.

Add some more symptoms.

Ex. 6. Answer the following questions.

1. How common is CFS among people?

2. Why are people from 20 to 30 more prone to fatigue? Why are women more prone to the disease?

3. Why isn’t it simple to diagnose CFS?

4. What are the symptoms of the chronic fatigue?

5. How does it usually start?

6. Do you think that this disease exists in Belarus? Are there many people suffering from it? Why?

Ex. 7. Complete the brief-summary.

Tired All the Time: cfs

Doctors are only now beginning 1. _____________ chronic fatigue syndrome because there are lots of symptoms that 2. ____________ them. About 1 per cent of the population is suffering from it. Most of them are in their twenties and thirties. This group is more 3. __________ to fatigue because of the 4. __________ of life and stressful factors. There are 5. __________ as many women as men. Women just go to doctors and there’s diagnosed more often.

CFS is hard to diagnose. Sometimes it looks like anything else, for example Lyme disease, depression, hypochondria.

The symptoms of CFS are: 6.___________ aches and fatigue, sore throat, lymph node swelling, muscle aches and weakness, forgetfulness, inability to concentrate and joint pains for 4 to 6 months.

Patients become exhausted from even minimal 7. ____________ . Sometimes they’re 8. ___________ , they can’t get to sleep and feel extreme vertigo. It probably is contagious perhaps because of a 9. ___________ immune system.

Activity, complexity, twice, to study, baffled, flulike, faulty, restless, prone.

Ex. 8. Reproduce the brief-summary on the memory.

Conversation practice

I

Mr. Clark: Good morning! I’d like to make an appointment with Doctor Green, please.

The receptionist: Certainly, sir. Is Friday 11 o’clock convenient for you?

Mr. Clark: Yes, that will be very nice.

The receptionist: And your name, please, sir?

Mr. Clark: My name is Clark.

II

Dr. Green: Good morning, Mr. Clark. What’s wrong with you?

Mr. Clark: I have an awful headache, that I can’t get rid of, Doctor. And my throat seems sore.

Dr. Green: Let me have a look at the throat first, Have you taken your temperature?

Mr. Clark: No, I’m afraid I have not.

Dr. Green: Put this thermometer under your tongue then. /Later/. Yes, you have a slight fever. I’m afraid you are catching the flu.

III

Dr. Green: You must go straight home to bed, and keep warm. Have plenty of hot milk.

Mr. Clark: And no medicine, Doctor?

Dr. Green: Well, I’ll make you a prescription for some medicine that will help to bring your temperature down.

Mr. Clark: And what about my headache?

Dr. Green: If the headache gets too bad you can take two aspirins.

Mr. Clark: Thank you, Doctor. I’ll do as you say. Good buy.

IV

Patient: Doctor, I have a bad headache and I have no appetite.

Doctor: Show me your tongue, please. Yes, you have a very nasty tongue. Have you pain in the stomach?

Patient: Yes, doctor, sometimes; especially after meals. I have a temperature after meals too.

Doctor: I must examine your stomach… Does it hurt here?

Patient: No, not there.

Doctor: Here?

Patient: Oh, yes, it does there.

V

Visitor: I have a very bad toothache. I can’t eat and I can’t sleep at night.

Dentist: Sit down in the chair here and open your mouth. Which tooth is it that hurts you?

Visitor: It, s a big tooth at the back on the left. Ugh! [uh] That hurts very badly.

Dentist: I shall put a filling in this one, but there is another on which is too bad to be filled. I shall have to extract it.

Visitor: Oh, doctor…

Dentist: Don’t be afraid. I shall give you an injection before I extract it.