Section A Lighten Your Load and Save Your Life

I. Warming-up questions:

1.Which is more important, work or health? Why?

2.For many people, what causes stress in their life?

3.Do you sometimes feel stressed? How?

4.How should we deal with stress?

II. A Brief Introduction to the Text

Nowadays people tend to work harder, longerhours and often under pressure. Work, therefore, seems like a drug which controls our lives. Health, as one of our most precious gifts, however, should never be taken for granted or abused. In this unit, we learn how stress, out of control, can kill ourselves. We are given some advice on what the causes of stress are, how we can control or cope with stress. Seeking any possible ways to cheer up, to reduce anxiety or fear, to increase self-confidence and to keep cool in a crisis helps us take good care of our health.

III.   Key words& Expressions:clinical professor of medicine hot reactorshort circuit safety outlet blood pressure heart rhythmblow one’s top/ lose one’s temper stir in one’s own juiceheart attack/heart problem perceived lack of controlset/change one’s priorities on the interior/ on the exteriordestructive level professional womanthe root of their stress mental stressfinancially independent negative thinkingchallenging experience traffic jam be out of control/be under control/take charge of/take control of

IV. Language Points

1.       If you often feel angry and overwhelmed, like the stress in your life is spinning out of control, then you may be hurting your heart. ( Para.1, L1)

overwhelm v.--- make sb. completely helpless; defeat

1)  He was overwhelmed with grief at the news of his son’s death in accident.

听到儿子在事故中丧生的消息，他悲痛欲绝。 2)The whole nation was overwhelmed with excitement because of its victory in bidding for hosting the 2008 Olympic Games.

由于申办 2008 年奥运会成功，整个国家都沉浸在兴奋激动中。

like conj.--- in the same manner as

1)    Do you make bread like you make cake? 你做面包和做蛋糕用的是同一种方法吗？

2 )  正如我说，我星期六到不了那儿。

  Like/As I said, I can’t get there on Saturday.

3) Young people like to behave like/as what stars behave.

2.  He attributes some of the cause to stress. ( Para. 6, L15 )

attribute…to… ----owe …to…

1)They attributed their success to their teacher’s encouragement.

他们把成功归因于老师的鼓励。

2) 每年又 1150 人死于酒后驾车。  

1150 deaths a year can be attributed to drunk driving.

3. …and the trick is to find out where the anger is coming from.(Para 8, L25)

the trick is to: the best solution is to

e.g.: The trick is to be consistently you, at your best.(B1-U4)

  4.     Eliot recommends taking charge of your life. (Para 13, L40)

recommend sb. sth. 推荐

recommend doing sth.赞成；建议

recommend that S + (should) do建议

e.g.: A librarian recommended this story book before.

有个图书管理员以前推荐过这本故事书。

Language experts recommend enlarging vocabulary through reading a lot.

语言学家建议通过大量阅读来提高词汇量。

Doctors recommend that all the patients (should) try the new medicine.

医生们建议所有病人试试这种新药。

5. If there is one word that should be substituted for stress, it’s control. (Para 13, L40-41)substitute (for): replace with; e.g.: He will substitute for the worker

who is ill.我们的老师要生小孩了，所以代课

老师给我们上课。Our teacher is having a baby, so we h

ave a substitute.

6. He wrote down things like being a better father, being a better husband, being financially independent, being stimulated intellectually and remaining even-tempered. (Para 15, L46-48)

even-tempered 性情平和的

mild-tempered 性情温和的

hot-/quick-/short-tempered 脾气爆 / 急燥的

sweet-tempered 性情温柔的

moody-tempered 喜怒无常的

good-tempered 脾气好的

bad-/ill-tempered 脾气坏的

stimulate v.---make sb. or sth. more active

She was stimulated into new efforts.

她受到了鼓励，正在作出新的努力。

成功会激励人不断努力。

Success will stimulate a person into further efforts.

I. Review difficult sentences of Text A

1.L1: If you often feel angry and overwhelmed, like the stress in your life is spinning out of control, the you may be hurting you heart.

2. L5: So says Dr. Robert S. Eliot.

3. L.14: The heart beats like a bag of worms instead of a pump.

4. L.28: They think they have to be all things to all people and do it all perfect.

5. L32: They give the same emphasis to a traffic jam that they give (to) a family argument.

II. 6 sentences for dictation

1) Excess alarm or stress chemicals can literally burst muscle fibers.

2) He attributed some of the cause of his heart disease to stress.

3)Good enough is never good enough, and perfectionists cannot delegate.

4) On the exterior, he was cool, calm and collected, but on the interior, stress was killing him.

5) They are angry because they have no compass in life.

6)If there is one word that should be substituted or stress, it’s control.

III.   Structure Writing: A Paragraph of Cause and Effect

The cause-and-effect structure is not new to us. What is new in our reading passage or worth our attention is that we find a sort of chain of causes or effects. This is to say the first cause leads to the first effect and the first effect becomes the second cause leading to the second effect and the second effect becomes the third cause leading to still another effect.

Please look at the structure analysis on Part of Paragraph 5:

I. Some expressions and difficult sentences in Text B.

1.Working hard involves being organized, focused, getting a lot of work done, knowing when to stop, and having a life other than work. (Pars 1, L2)

努力工作是指工作有条有理、精力集中，完成许多工作，知道何时歇手，知道除了工作还有生活。

 

involve sth.

involve doing sth.

be involved in sth.

e.g.The plan involves my living in London.

My job involves traveling abroad for three months each year.

He tried no to be involved in that crime .

other than:1) instead of, except for

Have we anything to drink other than milk?

除了牛奶我们还有什麽可以喝的？

除了游泳，你没有其他办法可以去那儿了。

You can’t get there other than by swimming.

2) not; anything but

She can hardly be other than grateful.

她不可能不感激。

事实真相和他所想的完全不一样。

The truth was quite other than what he thought.

2. L9: They are sometimes pushed into their habit by their work beliefs, by workaholic role models, and by a work system that automatically sanctions workaholism.

Meaning: They sometimes acquire the habit of working excessively hard, partly because they are brought up to work hard, partly because they are encouraged by other successful workaholics and encouraged by an outside working environment that approves of all work and no play. 他们有时是被自己的工作信念、工作狂的行为模式以及一种工作狂自我认可的工作方式所逼而养成了这习惯的。

3.L15: Americans tend to become trapped in a working and spending consumption mode, driven by merchants, that leads them to rack up their expectations.

Meaning: Americans are likely to get stuck in the pattern, created by business people, of working more and spending more, which leads Americans to spend more money and, therefore, they have to work harder to make money.

美国人往往会陷入一种由商人们所鼓吹的工作 -花钱消费的模式之中，这种模式引诱他们抬高了自己的期望值。

4. L28: People with high energy that needs discharging ( = needs to be discharged).

精力充沛、需要释放的人。

5.  L33: They can’t stand not being active.

他们忍受不了懒懒散散 ,

6. L37: Workaholics presumably view their work habits through denial and rationalization.

Meaning: Most probably, people who work like crazy won’t admit that they have spent too much time on their jobs and they try to provide explanations for why they work so hard

据推测，工作狂通过否认和自圆其说来解释自己的工作习惯。

7. L44: As workaholics tend to put all their eggs in one basket, their job, they can be helped by spreading these eggs into several baskets.

Meaning: Because workaholics tend to risk everything on one thing (that is, their work), it may be of some help to them if they spread the risk on several different things.

因为工作狂把一切希望都寄托在一件事 -- 他们的工作上，因此帮助他们的办法是把他们的希望分散到几件事上去。

II. Gaps filling: passage 4

What happens when humans are not allowed to sleep for long periods of time? To answer the question, a New Yorker, Peter Tripp, offered to stay 1_______ 200 hours. During that time Tripp was 2_______ by a group of doctors, who reported on his progress.

After three days of staying awake, he began to show 3_______ of his mental breakdown. He laughed at things that were not funny, and 4________ at things that were not sad. Complaining of pressure caused by a hat on his head, he tried 5_________to take it off. Tripp, of course, was not wearing a hat.

On the fifth day he cried out that a doctor’s jacket looked like crawling worms. Then he 6_______ he was in another city; he tried to run away from the building, 7____________ it was on fire; and he thought the 200-hour mark had been passed but 8________________________________________________________________________________. After 200 hours without sleep, Tripp, said the doctors, was “suffering from mental illness”. He was nearly mad.

Barely able to stand, Tripp was helped across the street to a room in a hotel. 9_____________________________________________________________________________. “Peter Tripp will sleep the deepest sleep in history” said the doctors. Tripp slept all right —for nine hours and eleven minutes. When he awoke, his first words were: “I feel fine.” 10__________________________________________________________________.

Keys: 1.awake 2.observed 3.signs

4. wept 5. repeatedly 6.imagined 7.insisting 8.that the doctors were still trying to keep the experiment going

9.There, after being awake for 201 hours and thirteen minutes, he fell asleep.

10.After a medical check, his greatly surprised watchers pronounced him fit.

III. Speaking topic: Taking Charge of Our Lives

  hard work→stress→under pressure

   environmental pollution→diseases

  ways to keep healthy: relax, do exercises, be confident with NICE factors instead of FUD,…

IV. Assignment:

After class, Ss prepare a 3’ presentation on the understanding of Text A. Some of the Ss will be asked to make their presentation in class.