Indicating purpose:

So that, so as (not) to, in order (not) to, in order that, in case, lest

Giving addition:

Both …and, not only … but, also\as well, moreover, in addition to, further, furthermore, not to mention the fact that

Showing condition and its consequences:

In case, assuming that, on condition that, providing\provided that, in the event that, as long as, granted\granting that, otherwise, or else;

Under those circumstances, if so, if not, in that case, thus, consequently

Making assumptions:

Stated that, granted that, broadly considered\seen, when exposed to, unless otherwise (specially) stated (indicated, specified), things being as they are

Putting a different point of view:

After all, all the same, anyway, at any rate, to put the same thing in another way, in other words, contrary to the popular belief, it is often argued\alleged that,

Stating and justifying opinions:

In my opinion\view, to my way of thinking, to my mind, it would be more reasonable to say that …; I can’t be certain, but I think…, I could be wrong, but I think…, I feel strongly that, I am inclined to believe that, as far as I am concerned, I personally think…, In my personal opinion…; personally, I feel that…, this is what I think, seeing that, stating that, needless to say, suffice to say,

Making conclusions:

In conclusion, in summary, to sum up, as (it) was previously stated, on the whole, all in all, in short, briefly, to put it briefly, if we summarize, above all, taking everything into account, all things considered.

III. Summarizing statements on the given reading passage :

The text under consideration comes from an academic journal with a series of articles on socio-psychological issues. Apparently, the author’s reason for having written it is to inform the reader about causes of stress, both physical and moral, so as to encourage an ordinary person to seek methods how to handle its harmful effects. Judging from the first glimpse of the passage, it would seem that this piece of information based on some experimental findings is rendered formally in terms of developing human’s ability to deal with stress. The information contained in the passage enables to work out its theme concerning necessity of human’s adaptation for meeting natural threats emerging in private environment and social community as well, in other words called stress response. Thus the text is aimed at performing a psychological influence on the reader to convince him of obtaining proper understanding how much effect stress might have on our body and mind, taking into account its positive and negative aspects with men and women having different stress levels.

The author deliberately attends to a lot of evidence, sometimes controversial, coming from numerous studies on the subject of stress factors in order to put a point across more clearly. In this context, he sounds quite logic and convincing, however rather concerned and anxious about the lack of proper knowledge. As a result he brings home to the reader some peculiar details indicating primary connection between stress and weight gain, heart disease, tension type headaches, sleep disturbance. To make the matters worse, stress as a risk factor for suicide is mentioned by the author, as if to make us stop and think about posed threat. The author’s tone is in the perfect keeping with the message communicated through the whole text bringing out the idea that well-being should be focal point of happy disposition, whereas stress diminishes the quality of life by reducing feelings of pleasure and accomplishment. Being engaged with the content, we are encouraged to make personal judgments about necessity of taking responsibility for health. Even if the reader does not happen to know what serotonin, cortisol or abdmominal is like, he gets a vivid notion of bio-chemical processes triggering stress. This is crucial for inferring the gist based on generalization of the issues related to reasons for stress and its psychological and physiological effects, with respect to gender differences. Let’s take an example of work stress and marital stress correspondingly associated with men and women, or them being less or more exposed to stressful conditions. Interestingly, gender aptitudes influence the response to stress, resulted in using alcohol, eating less healthily, followed by loss weight or obesity. With all things considered, issues put forward in the article make sense to think about the way how to manage stresses so as to keep health safe. Through close reading, we familiarize ourselves with attitudes to lifestyle, where stress and tension come along: as people tend to live under pressure in different communities. Evident are cultural expectations of harmful effects for living, which should be shared by a representative of every culture, I suppose. This is why the author’s anxiety about shortage of knowledge in this respect is clear for everyone. What is more, emphasis is placed on culturally-appropriate behaviour generated from surrounding stressful conditions, i.e. system of patterns to adhere to: develop adequate stress response. By the way, this is something common we are expected to do irrespective of nationality.