The English Matters for University Students. Practical and Theoretical Issues. Учебное пособие для студентов 2-3 курсов, обучающихся по направлению 45

Module 1. A Healthy Lifestyle

THE PROBLEM OF EATING PROPERLY

Text 1. Why do we devour so much food? We are not gluttons, are we?

“We live in the era of fast food culture. We are always in a hurry. We have no time to relax and enjoy a meal. We want to eat now and want to eat fast.

Every day a new McDonald’s restaurant opens somewhere on our planet.

What is tasty is not healthy. Doctors say that chips and pizzas are fattening, coca cola spoils our teeth, and coffee shortens our lives. Some scientists believe that food influences not only our bodies but our spirits as well. Foods with lots of additives, fat or sugar can make you violent and anti-social. Natural foods like fresh fruit and vegetables which contain lots of vitamins and minerals can make you more intelligent, optimistic and energetic” (12).

Text 2. Mind Good Eating Habits

“1. Never Overeat: Overeating is one of the most common and dangerous dietary habits. It often leads to obesity, which is a factor in many other diseases. When you eat more, the digestive tract and other organs are overworking and get stressed. Always eat in moderation. In fact, eating small meals several times a day instead of two large meals is much healthier.

2. Never Under Eat: All forms of under-eating like skipping meals, or eating only limited foods will lead to poor nutrition which will eventually lead to health problems due to protein, calorie, vitamin, or mineral deficiencies. Under-eating causes symptoms like lack of energy and subsequent weakness, skin problems, and hair loss” (9). To crown it all, you are likely to experience such mortally dangerous states as anorexia and bulimia. Very rigid eating patterns continue ti spoil health of many people, especially women. The adherents of radical dieting consume foods from a very restricted list. It can lead to serious nutritional deficiencies and health disorders.

3. Don't practice emotional eating. Exclude it from your eating behaviour. If you are frustrated or upset find alternative ways to console yourself.

Answer the questions:

1)Why is fast food culture so popular nowadays?

2)Why is overeating really harmful?

3)What products are fattening?

4)What health problems can be caused by under-eating?

5)In what cases can under-eating appear mortal?

6)What other ways apart from eating can you suggest to cope with stress?

7)What other good eating habits can you mention?

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PART 1. THE PRACTICAL ISSUES

Mind the textual vocabulary: Translate from English into Russian:

additives, dietary habits, the digestive tract, mineral deficiencies, adherents, eating behaviour, to maintain a more balanced diet.

Explain what the following phrases mean:

the era of fast food culture, dietary habits, organs get stressed, eat in moderation, skipping meals, rigid eating patterns, Don't let your emotions eat, eating behavior.

The Written Task

Write two descriptions (each – about ten sentences): Use the TOPICAL VOCABULARY

1)someone’s proper/healthy eating behaviour and its reasons and consequences;

2)someone’s wrong/unhealthy/dangerous eating behaviour and its reasons and consequences.

Translation

1)Мой врач говорит, что кофе приносит вред здоровью, потому что повышает кровяное давление, что может закончиться инсультом. Я не хочу сокращать свою жизнь, поэтому вместо кофе я сейчас пью травяные напитки.

2)Его привычный рацион – продукты с массой добавок, сахара, жира. Это прямой путь к ожирению.

3)Очень строгие диеты, несомненно, вредят здоровью, так как фанатичное следование им может вызвать анемию, обмороки, сбой в работе органов и физиологических систем и как худший исход – патологические смертельно опасные состояния – булимию и анорексию.

4)Возможно, это звучит абсурдно, но, чтобы похудеть, вы должны есть. Не пропускайте приемы пищи, потому что недоедание обязательно выльется в последующее переедание.

5)Не позволяйте эмоциям влиять на ваше пищевое поведение. Если вы расстроены – послушайте приятную музыку, посмотрите захватывающий фильм, погладьте кошку вместо поедания пирожных.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: SHADES OF INNER HARMONY

«У вас будут неудачи, у вас будут травмы, вы будете ошибаться. У вас будут периоды депрессии и отчаяния. Семья, учеба, работа, проблемы быта – все это не раз и не два станет помехой … Однако стрелка вашего внутреннего компаса должна всегда показывать одно и то же направление – к цели» (Стюарт МакРоберт) (8)

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PART 1. THE PRACTICAL ISSUES

While reading the text fill in the chart in your journal.

Later compare your charts in class.

Note! Mind the expression: A METAPHOR FOR SMTH…

E. g. The author uses disease as a metaphor for the corruption in society. The task: In your journal make 5 similar sentences of your own. If you

lack imagination use the imagery of the books on individual reading you have read.

B. THE STORY “The Day at the Beach” (by Arthur Gordon)

Put your troubles in a pocket with a hole in it. (From An Old Postcard)

“Not long ago, I came to one of those bleak periods that many of us encounter from time to time, a sudden drastic dip in the graph of living when everything goes stale and flat, energy wanes” (10, с. 165), “enthusiasm dies. The effect on my work was frightening. Every morning” (10, с. 165) I clenched my teeth and muttered: Today my life will turn to the better, my life will become the same as it was before. But this primitive desperate auto-training didn’t work. The most depressing thing was that I just failed to recall what the life was like before. I just couldn’t realize and believe that the person on the photos (my wife likes to place them here and there) who was smiling radiantly, playing with our dogs, or sitting in a lawn chair with a blissful air was I.

The barren days dragged on, nothing changed, the paralysis of mind and emotions grew worse. I knew that some of my familiars practiced visiting psychiatrists who were said to be helpful. Also I knew those visits cost a fortune. I was not inclined to aggravate my poor spiritual condition by paying money for my telling about my problems to an unknown person. The same time I felt deep in my mind that I really needed help. I knew a doctor, just a doctor, an old doctor

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Module 1. A Healthy Lifestyle

who came to our house when the children were ill. I just greeted him if I was in but never talked to him. At that moment he was the only person for me to ask for help. I dialed his number. He answered a bit stiffly, asked what was wrong. If only I could explain what I was feeling (or not feeling)... I don’t know what’s wrong with me – I said honestly – Things have become really bad. It’s a kind of a dead end. Please help me. – The doctor’s voice softened. He seemed to understand what I meant. His surface gruffness was deceitful, it disguised wisdom, experience and sympathy. He made me an appointment without any delay and in an hour I was in his office.

► What do you think was the doctor’s help like? Read the whole text and find it out.

C. AFTER READING Understanding the Story 1. Answer these questions

–Why did the author have to turn to a doctor? Did the man suffer from physical or mental (spiritual) disorder?

–Why did the beach appear to be the background for the treatment suggested by the doctor?

–How many “prescriptions” did the man get from the doctor? Were they in oral or written form?

–Was the man an obedient patient?

–How long did it take the author to realize what was wrong with him?

–Was the man completely satisfied with the treatment? What did the man feel for the doctor?

2. True or false?

–Before turning to a specialist the author had tried to overcome his “paralysis” himself.

–The psychological problems of the author affected his private life, first of

all.

–The author took the doctor’s instructions very seriously.

–“Reaching back” was unpleasant and painful for the author.

–The third prescription appeared the easiest one.

–The work ceased to satisfy the author because he didn’t feel he was serving others.

–The author didn’t feel any therapeutic effect of the “prescriptions”.

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3. Explain what it means

–The barren days dragged on, and the paralysis grew worse.

–I was thinking of things bigger than myself.

–My first reaction was purely defensive.

–In the past there had always been something spontaneous about my work, something uncontrived, something free.

–This is a law as inexorable as gravity.

–I saw now that in those “prescriptions” was a therapeutic progression.

4. Fill in the chart

Answer the question: Which inner “discovery” was the most important for the author? Why do you think this understanding was likely to turn his life for the better?

Vocabulary Comprehension

1. English ►Russian

Drastic dip in the graph of living, barren days, gruffness, clump of seaweed, racing thoughts, to hurl at a problem, to visualize, roller, to look past the job, frantic clutch of security, cunningly devised.

2. Russian ►English

Энергия ослабевает, сжимать зубы, длинная узкая полоска бумаги, задумчиво бродить, воскрешать (в памяти) детали, прибой, вихриться, самодовольный, средство, делать вклад (вносить свою лепту), сдержанное восхищение, произвести переоценку, восприимчивый (чуткий) ум.

3. Mind some phrasal verbs. Find the situations from the text to illustrate their use.

Come to, take on, drag on, turn to, sift down, rule out, duck down, reach for, go out (tide).

Translate the sentences using these phrasal verbs.

a)У меня в голове не укладывается, как ты мог дойти до такого позора.

b)С рождением сына жизнь Аниты приобрела новый смысл. c) Дни перед отъездом тянулись невыносимо долго. d) Поняв, что не справится с проблемой самостоятельно, Грэг обратился к психотерапевту. e) Луиза задум-

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Module 1. A Healthy Lifestyle

чиво смотрела, как осыпаются желтые листья, и размышляла, как ей изменить пустую (бесплодную) жизнь. f) Врач исключил из моего «графика» просмотр телепередач, хождение в клубы и даже свидания с девушками! Он сказал, что тишина – лучший лекарь для человека, перенесшего нервный срыв. g) Я нагнулся, чтобы подобрать красивую раковину. Раньше, во время безумной гонки, я не обращал внимания на такие мелочи. Теперь же, я увидел окружающий мир по-новому. h) Если бы я мог «дотянуться» до самых счастливых мгновений детства… Говорят, эти воспоминания непременно придадут силы в трудную минуту.

4. Make synonymic pairs. Note! This list contains a few odd words.

Bleak, vague, to be interested in, to halt, exultant, intently, to slam, gloomy, exasperated, to stop, confident, fractional, attentively, flat, abruptly, tiny, to be concerned with, content, annoyed, suddenly, uninteresting, uncontrived, unclear.

5. Mind set expressions:

to come to a dead end to be an end in itself

a)find in a dictionary the translation of these expressions

b)try to explain their meaning in your own words

c)reproduce the textual contexts in which these expressions are used

d)write in your journal a couple of short stories to illustrate these phraseological units. Read them in class.

6. Fill in the chart.

SOUNDS

7. Take a closer look! Consult the explanatory dictionary to find the definitions of these words:

psychiatrist, prescription, newscast, gravity, insurance, to retouch.

Creative writing

1. Write a monologue with a didactic shade: The author at the age of 70 shares his life experience with his grandson. The elderly man tells the youngster about his enthusiasm at the beginning of his career (What was he?), the further shift in his attitude to work, the negative consequences, the spiritual crisis, the “lesson” of the doctor, the positive changes after the man had realized what was wrong with him.

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PART 1. THE PRACTICAL ISSUES

2. In this story ocean serves as the background for the author’s reflections and his inner progress. During the day the ocean and the weather changed. Register those changes in the chart.

Try to confront (compare) the condition of the weather and the ocean with the stages of the man’s inner progress. Don’t you think the image of the nature

(the weather, the ocean) has some metaphorical meaning? Write down your conclusion in your journal. Discuss your observations and ideas in group.

3.Write a fictitious story. Use the image of the nature (the weather, the ocean) to illustrate or to emphasize the inner state of the participants, to depict brighter the stages of the situations. The topics:

a) A romantic date at the beach.

b) The parting of two lovers at the beach after their breaking up.

c) A man finds himself at the beach after some stress situation. He hopes the deserted beach will bestow some sedative effect on him.

4.According to the Internet prognosis of the World Health Protection

Organization by 2020 depression is expected to outrun such “leaders” as cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Depression is a complicated disease which affects either physical or psychological aspects of people’s life. Write an essay following the plan (think over the title of the essay):

THE INTRODUCTION. State the problem. THE MAIN BODY.

– The symptoms of depression;

– The reasons of depression;

– How to “struggle” with depression;

– The prophylaxis of depression. THE CONCLUSION.

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Module 1. A Healthy Lifestyle

FOOD FOR THOUGHT (CONTINUATION):

THE HIKIKOMORI

Let us consider the following way of life. In the focus of this material are Japanese young people. This tendency can be easily applied to any developed nation.

In Japan, hikikomori in the literary language means "pulling inward, being confined", i. e., "acute social withdrawal"; (colloquially/in adaptive translation: shut-in). “They are reclusive adolescents or adults who withdraw from society and seek for extreme degrees of isolation and confinement. Hikikomori have been described as loners or "modern-day hermits.

The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare defines hikikomori as a condition in which the affected individuals refuse to leave their parents' house, and isolate themselves away from society in a single room for a period exceeding six months”

(14) with no apparent physical or mental etiology to explain this social withdrawal. “In the most extreme cases, some people remain in isolation for years or even decades.

Often hikikomori start out as school refusers. Home alone, socially isolated, hikikomori rely heavily on anonymous or online interaction.

While many people accept the pressures of the outside world, hikikomori react by complete social withdrawal. They usually have few or no friends” (14).

Hikikomori prefer indoor activities and it would be incorrect to think that they often feel bored. They have hobbies, educate themselves considering the Internet as the unlimited resource of information.

Unhappiness is not essential at all, on the contrary – some hikikomori spend their time in the parents’ house rather comfortably and so to say “to the full” in a way: having the limitless leisure time they process a lot of information concerning science, computer programming, languages etc. Creating clips and streaming are invariably popular occupations and often the way of getting money through donating. Hikikomori tend to have the high level of intellect. Moreover, the hikikomori discover the independent original thinking, rather sober, and a developed sense of self. They know what they want and what they don’t want, and they know pretty well the reasons of their likes and dislikes.

The inclination to be isolated from society of free will is naturally considered to be a disorder, though such persons are usually physically healthy and intellectually developed. Sometimes it is called “social anxiety disorder” ("social phobia"). “This has led some psychiatrists to suggest that hikikomori may be affected by autism spectrum disorders and other disorders that affect social integration” (14).

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PART 1. THE PRACTICAL ISSUES

Hikikomori tendencies in Japan might be encouraged by the following factors:

1)Middle class families can afford supporting and feeding a grown-up child. Poor families do not have hikikomori children because youngsters have to leave the home to work.

2)Soft overprotective parenting; or co-dependence between mother and son (statistically it is the boys who become hikikomori, but the girls may lead this way of life too).

3)Young people’s pessimistic thinking about the modern social system. All the efforts to take part in social competition for elite jobs appear like a pointless thing to many young people who are aware of corruption, sweatshop practice at work, the absence of social lifting etc.

4)Nowadays parents are unable to become “teachers of life”. Young adults may feel overwhelmed by their social duties. Immature and unprepared parents breed the wrong cognitive patterns in their children. Even realizing the problem parents are often reluctant to talk about it.

5)Gaming and using social networks have reduced the time that people spent beyond the walls of their dwelling.

6)The Japanese education system with its rigid pass-or-fail ideology puts great demands upon youth being the reason of great stress which can affect youngsters’ behaviour in a negative way. The instinct of self-preservation stimulates young people to avoid these stressful experiences.

No doubt, hikikomori life-style is a problem, especially when parents of social hermits grow older and start to die. Nowadays there are a lot of ways to get money, food, clothes, gadgets without leaving home. To avoid society is not a crime, it is not prohibited. The task for modern hermits is to master providing themselves with money and food when they stay quite alone in this world. If they master practical living in this world without leaving the house the outcome is likely to be more optimistic.

Answer the questions:

1)What do you think of hikikomori life-style? Have you ever heard about social hermits in Russia?

2)What are the reasons of hikikomori trend mentioned in the text? Do you agree with the above-mentioned reasons to explain the spreading of this phenomenon? Can you mention more possible reasons?

3)Are hikikomori inclinations the symptoms of mental disorder? Or it is a norm of modern reality...

4)What could be the healthy alternative of hikikomori life-style?

5)How to face the life-challenges mentioned in this publication not to become a social hermit?

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