职场英语学习：如何用英语聊压力(1)
2025-01-28 01:26:25浏览：
Jim: Hey Claire, you've been really quiet these last few days.
Is something wrong?
Claire: I've been really stressed.
It's the end of the year and I've got so much stuff to do!
I feel like I'm drowning in work.
J: Well, stress is a real thing.
It's not an imaginary condition.
C: It's seriously affecting my life!
I can't sleep, I don't have much of an appetite and my husband says I've been kind of short tempered.
Other people seem to handle stress okay.
.
.
why am I so weak?
Claire较近一直不太说话，原来是因为到年底了，有做不完的事情，I've been really stressed.
她感觉压力特别大。
Claire说，I feel like I'm drowning in work.
Drown, d-r-o-w-n, drown 溺水，在这里是一种比喻的说法，drown in work 意思是自己快要被工作压垮了。
Claire不仅睡眠不好，食欲差，而且还动不动就发脾气，short tempered。
大家都有压力，是不是只有Claire承压能力差呢?
Jim说， J: You're not weak.
.
.
you're stressed out!
Stress has been a part of the human condition for millions of years.
Back when we still lived in the trees we had to watch out for predators.
.
.
and as you might imagine, that was pretty stressful.
C: Yeah, but I don't see any tigers or leopards roaming around our office.
My stress is just about silly paperwork!
J: But you're actually having the same reaction as our tree-dwelling ancestors!
It's called the "flight or fight" response.
Each time you feel like something's threatening you, your body decides whether to run away or fight.
.
.
it causes all sorts of chemical reactions in the body.
Jim安慰Claire说，这是身体对过度压力所做出的反应，就好像原来住在树上的老祖宗，遥随地要watch out for predators警惕捕食者的来袭，虽然现代人压力的来源变了，但是Claire面对压力，身体做出的反应还是一样的，这种反应叫flight or fight response，要在逃跑还是交战之间做出选择。
Claire似懂非懂。
C: So a deadline will cause that same reaction?
J: It could.
Modern humans actually have more "flight or fight" responses than our ancestors did.
They just had a couple of close calls every day, but today, we have dozens or even hundreds!
C: So the life of a cave woman was less stressful than my life?
Jim说，跟生活在树上的老祖宗相比，现代人每天面对的flight or fight的情况更多。
他们以前每天可能只有几次遇到危险，close calls，a close call指险些发生的厄运，比如 I was almost run over by a car.
It was a close call.
(我差点没被车撞到，太悬了)。
如果真像Jim说的，现代人比史前人类cave man或是cave woman面对的压力还大了?
我们下次继续听。