6. Describe the pictures using the given words and answering the questions.
1. Which position of the body is right?
2. What is wrong with these pictures?
3. What will be the problems with health for the people at 1st, 2nd and 3d pictures? Why?
4. What are the main ergonomics rules for people who work with computers and laptops?
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Keyboard, too, high, the monitor, low, user sit, much, too, far away, from the table, causing, stress, in the shoulders, neck and back, stabilizing, elbows, on his knees, dropping, wrists on the front of the laptop, holding his head forward, and elevating, his shoulders, the laptop, on a “standard” surface, that is too low, close for comfortable viewing, and too high for upper body comfort problems with back, knees, neck. (look at the example of Image Ref. 1,2,3: text “Home office ergonomics”)
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7. Translate the text on the picture. Give it the title and retell.
Unit 2 Stress in our life.
response відповідь, реакція
comprehensive всеосяжний, всебічний
halt зупиняти
short-sighted короткостроковий
tear зрив, надрив
frustration розчарування, зневіра
vague невизначений, нечіткий
to alleviate щоб полегшити
ups and downs злети та падіння
rank службове положення, становище
healing зцілення
sanity розсудливість
coping strategies стратегії виживання
commute back and forth щоденна поїздка туди й назад
personal commitment особисті зобов’язання
The physiology of stress
It is generally agreed by the scientific community that stress is not what happens to someone. Stress is how a person reacts to stressors. Stress affects everyone differently.
Stressors can be positive -- exciting things like graduating, getting married, or going on vacation -- or stressors can be negative things, like worrying about the bills, breaking a leg, or dealing with traffic on your daily commute.
These stressors can be sudden, one-time occurrences or repeated, leading to a chronic problem. Stress can be a result of either physical or psychological factors. We often get stressed by expecting or imagining disasters that do not and may never occur.
The body’s response to stress is comprehensive and complex, and it affects the operation of many systems.
As noted above, the body has a similar set of responses to a broad array of stressors. These responses include:
1. Rapid mobilization of energy from storage.
2. Increased heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing to speed up the transport of nutrients and oxygen.
3. Halted digestion. The large intestine is stimulated to release previously digested food to reduce body weight.
4. Inhibited immunity to save the body’s energy for the crisis at hand.
5. Diminished perception of pain.
6. Improved cognitive and sensory skills. Memory improves, except in the case of prolonged or extreme stress. All of these responses are meant to be short-term in order to mobilize the body for action. They are short-sighted and inefficient, but they are important in a physical crisis situation.
Stress is the physical and emotional wear and tear resulting from real or imagined problems. These problems include: pressures of everyday life, conflicts including choices and arguments, frustrations and another factors such as
a) Intimacy, community, and social support.
Social support is very protective for humans. This is true for both long-term and short-term instances of stress. People need to be needed; it gives purpose to life. Caring for and protecting children, pets, and other loved ones is a powerful motivator. Social interaction has been shown to be critical to life, and to mental and physical development. People with emotionally supportive relationships are less likely to respond to stress with illness than are adults without such support.
b) Emotions
Emotions are known to affect memory. The magnitude of how an experience is remembered is affected by the emotional state of the individual. If we are extremely happy, we are more likely to remember an event.
In contrast, repressed memories are an extreme example of changes that take place in the brain during highly stressful or traumatic events.
c) Predictability
Unpredictability makes stressors much more stressful. Vague, predictive information can actually increase stress by having too little information. Information either just before or long before the stressor does little to alleviate psychological anticipation.
d) Control and learned helplessness
Belief that you have control generally reduces the response to stressors. It is not necessary to actually exercise that control, but it is important to know it is available. For instance, air travel is safer than driving, however people are afraid of flying much more than driving. This is because most people believe they are above average drivers and have more control over the situation.
If you feel you can control the stressor, but fail to do so, you will feel worse than if you had no control. In truly awful situations, a belief that you have control is damaging because you will feel appalled by the disaster you didn’t prevent.
e) Depression
There are many types of depression, but statistically, stress and the onset of depression tend to go together. People experiencing a lot of life stress are more likely to sink into major depression. 5-20% of the population succumbs to major depression at some point in life while facing daily ups and downs. A genetic predisposition to depression creates a 50% chance of developing it. Environmental factors, such as stress, are responsible for the remaining 50%.
f) Personality, temperament, and stress consequences
Personality and temperament are very important in understanding why some people are more prone to stress-related diseases.
g) Repressive Personalities
Repressive are people who show no outward signs of stress at all. They are people we tend to envy because they seem to have everything together and are hard-working, solid, and stoic. Personality tests show that they are not depressed or anxious, and they truly are mentally healthy, happy, productive, and socially interactive. What is wrong is that they need social conformity, they are uncomfortable with ambiguity, and dread social disapproval.
h) Life and work factors
Urban living reduces life expectancy by 2 years due to crime, traffic, stress and pollution. Adjusting to city life is challenging and is correlated with high blood pressure. Living in a rural and village setting increases life expectancy by 1 year due to less stressful conditions. Rural areas experience little or no cases of hypertension in many areas of the world, while parts of the world with gradual Westernization show a higher rate of hypertension.
Another life factor involved in stress is smoking. Many smokers claim that cigarettes help to calm them when they feel stressed; however, medical and scientific evidence indicates that nicotine dependency is a cause of psychological stress.
Stress levels are higher than those of nonsmokers during periods of abstinence, and only when smoking is resumed do smokers’ moods and stress levels return to normal.
Therefore, smoking seems to be only capable of normalizing the negative emotions and feelings that build up with nicotine dependence. After the initial period of withdrawal when symptoms have passed, quitting leads to a significant reduction in self-reported stress.