Unit 6  The Pace of Life
Text A  Old Father Time Becomes a Terror
Before Reading
1. 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
2. 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 an
d 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 / reaction memberDishonesty / 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?
3. 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: news.ft/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.

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