Unit 6  The Pace of Life

Before Reading

An English Song– Dear Diary

Dear Diary

Questions and Answers

Questionnaire

Warm-up Questions

Background Information

Richard Tomkins

Technology

Stress in the Workplace

Global Reading

Part Division of the Text

Further Understanding

For Part 1    Scanning

             Blank-filling

For Part 2   True or False

For Part 3   Table-completion

For Part 4   Questions and Answers

Detailed Reading

After Reading

Vocabulary

Useful Expressions

Scanning

Sentence Translation

Dictation

Discussion

Talk about the Pictures

Writing Practice

Proverbs and Quotations

Supplementary Reading

Culture Notes

Reading

Comprehension Task

Before Reading

1 English Song– Dear Diary

Dear Diary

Dear Diary
     The Moody Blues

Dear diary, what a day it's been.

Dear diary, it's been just like a dream.

Woke up late. Wasn't where I should have been.

For goodness sake what's happening to me.

Write lightly, yours truly, dear diary.

It was cold outside my door.

So many people by the score.

Rushing around so senselessly.

They don't notice there's people like me.

Write lightly, yours truly, dear diary.

They don't know what they're playing.

They've no way of knowing what the game is.

Still they carry on doing what they can.

Outside me, yours truly, dear diary.

It's over. Will tomorrow be the same?

I know that they're really not to blame.

If they weren't so blind then surely they'd see.

There's a much better way for them to be.

Inside me, yours truly, dear diary.

Somebody exploded an H-bomb today.

But it wasn't anyone I knew.

Questions and Answers

1. How does the singer treat his diary? Why?

  (=He treats it as a friend, to whom he can pour out his inmost feelings.)

2. What does the singer think about how other people spend their time?

  (=He thinks they spend their days in a rush, so much so that they have no time for each other or for themselves.)

3. What can we infer about the singer’s attitude towards the pace of life today?

  (=It is unwise for people to spend days in a rush.)

2. Questionnaire

Questionnaire

Purpose:

The purpose of this questionnaire is to increase your awareness of stress in your life.

Directions:

Answer "yes" or "no" to each of the stress index questions. Circle your answer.

_____ 1. I have frequent arguments.

_____ 2. I often get upset at work.

_____ 3. I often have neck and/or shoulder pains due to anxiety/stress.

_____ 4. I often get upset when I stand in long lines.

_____ 5. I often get angry when I listen to the local, national, or world news or read the

newspaper.

_____ 6. I do not have a sufficient amount of money for my needs.

_____ 7. I often get upset when driving.

_____ 8. At the end of a workday I often feel stress-related fatigue.

_____ 9. I have at least one constant source of stress/anxiety in my life (e.g., conflict with boss, Neighbor, mother-in-law, etc.).

_____ 10. I often have stress-related headaches.

_____ 11. I do not practice stress management techniques.

_____ 12. I rarely take time for myself.

_____ 13. I have difficulty in keeping my feelings of anger and hostility under control.

_____ 14. I have difficulty in managing time wisely.

_____ 15. I often have difficulty sleeping.

_____ 16. I am generally in a hurry.

_____ 17. I usually feel that there is not enough time in the day to accomplish what I need to do.

_____ 18. I often feel that I am being mistreated by friends or associates.

_____ 19. I do not regularly perform physical activity.

_____ 20. I rarely get 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night.

Scoring and Interpretation:

Answering "yes" to any of the questions means that you need to use some form of stress management techniques.

Add your "yes" answers and use the following scale to evaluate the level of stress in your life.

Number of "Yes" Answers Stress Category:

6 - 20 High stress

3 - 5 Average stress

0 - 2 Low stress

3 Warm-up Questions

(Direction:) Read the following short passage and discuss the questions.

“Now psychologists look at our view of time another way. They go into several countries and measure the pace of life. They measure the accuracy of bank clocks and how fast city dwellers walk. They time transactions in banks and post offices. They see how long people take to answer questions.

Japanese keep the fastest pace. Americans are a close second. Italians and Indonesians are at the bottom of the list. …

…

Finally, we look at heart disease. That's tricky, because other factors are involved. Our heart's greatest enemy is tobacco. But heart disease also correlates with the pace we keep. Smokers who drive themselves are really asking for it.”

1.    What do you think keep people in some countries so busy?

2.  What might be the acute/major problems facing people today?

(Possible answers: 1. Tension—Physical, mental, emotional

2. Health problems—Physical, mental and emotional diseases

3. Ecological pollution/Rupture in ozone layer

4. Disturbed family relations

5. Violence and cruelty

6. Corruption / Dishonesty / Immorality

7. Drug-addiction

8. Neglect of law & order and ethical, moral and social discipline

9. Armaments/Nuclear weapons (Militarism)

3. Compared with people’s life in ancient times, what have new technology, the information explosion and rising economy really brought to us?

4 Background Information

Richard Tomkins

Richard Tomkins, consumer industries editor of the Financial Times, where he has been a member of the editorial staff since 1983. (=Financial Times includes business and financial news and analysis. To know it better, log on the following website: https://news.ft.com/home/europe （

Technology

Many historians of science argue not only that technology is an essential condition of advanced, industrial civilization but also that the rate of technological change has developed its own momentum in recent centuries. Innovations now seem to appear at a rate that increases geometrically, without respect to geographical limits or political systems. These innovations tend to transform traditional cultural systems, frequently with unexpected social consequences. Thus technology can be conceived as both a creative and a destructive process.

Stress in the Workplace

The problem of stress is not likely to go away. As the pace of change continues to increase, the demands upon us will also increase. We will have to make more decisions and make decisions faster; have to learn new skills, adapt to new situations, and cope with new threats. As a result we will find ourselves becoming more tired, making more mistakes, becoming more hostile, more anxious, more depressed, suffering more ill-health, and having more accidents.

If we are to survive in an ever-accelerating world, it is imperative that we learn to cope with the increasing pressures of change. If we do not, breakdowns and burnouts will become the norm.

Global Reading

1. Part Division of the Text

2.Further Understanding

For Part 1

Scanning

(Directions:) Scan part one and find out three reasons why we feel so time-pressed today. And make a note of the transitional devices used there.

1.    _____________________

2.    _____________________

3.    _____________________

(=1. Technology  2. Information explosion  3. Rising prosperity)

Transitional devices: 1. ___________

                   2. ___________

(=1. …apart, …a second reason…(Para. 7)

  2. There is another reason…(Para. 11) )

Blank-filling

(Directions:) Facts are valuable as evidence that enhances the persuasive force of an argumentative paper. In stating the first reason, the author lists a number of facts to try to convince the readers of the unfavorable effects technology has had on our lives. Now could you find some more supporting facts apart from the one given below, and put them down?

1)     The motorcar brings more traffic problems than it promises to solve.

2)     _________________________________________________________________

3)     _________________________________________________________________

4)     _________________________________________________________________

5)     _________________________________________________________________

6)     _________________________________________________________________

(=2) The aircraft creates a high demand for time-consuming journeys that we

    never dreamed of.

3) The washing machine, contrary to our expectations, multiplies the hours spent on washing and ironing.

4) Instead of making our lives easier, technology goes so far as to cram extra work into our leisure time.

5) Technology produces the new burden of dealing with faxes, e-mails and voice-mails.

6) Technology eats further into our time by forcing us to handle software glitches on computers and filling our heads with useless information from the Internet.)

For Part 2

True or False

1. It is convenient to say we are all lack of time. (F)

  (=It is too general to say we are all lack of time.)

2. About 50 percent of people will tell you they never have enough time to get things done. (F)

  (=About 50 percents of unemployed or retired people will tell you they never have enough time to get things done.)

3. In the U.K., working hours have risen only slightly in the last 10 years. (T)

4. The gains of free time were unevenly distributed only because different groups of people gained different amount of free time. (F)

  (=There is also a gender issue here.)

For Part 3

Table-completion

(Directions:) Fill in the chart with a variety of reactions provoked by the perception of the time famine and the trouble with all these reactions. Pay attention to the transitional devices, too.

For Part 4

Questions and Answers

1. What is the crux of the problem the author points out?

  (=The author points out the time stress we feel arises not from a shortage of time, but from the too many things we try to do. )

2. What is remedy for the stress according to the author’s opinion?

  (=A possible remedy is that we should understand the problem and realize that it is not more time we need, it is fewer desires.)