Final self-assesment

Writing summaries

I believe that during this year I learned how to write a summary more-or-less. Of course, I have to make every effort in order to write a good summary because I make quite a lot grammatical mistakes.

Speaking

Short talks were useful for me because it helped to improve my English speaking skills. When I was preparing at home I checked the suitable words, the grammar and had an opportunity to think out what I want to talk about.

Speaking impromptu was the hardest to me. I know that my speaking skills are poor and it is really hard to say something when others are speaking very well. However, I think that my speaking skills become much better and I improved it over this year.

Power point presentations were the most interesting tasks for me during this course because I could choose the topics that I like the most and it was really enjoyable to search for information that is interesting for me.

Listening to online materials and cassettes are quite difficult for me. I think my performance depends on the speaker’s style of talking. If he or she speaks enough slowly then it is not very hard to understand but if speaker splatters and speaks fast than it really difficult for me to understand the talk.

ESP vocabulary

Class tests online was useful because we can revise the material that we have learnt at home and this task wasn’t difficult when I saw into the module fairly.

Moodle tests were very useful in preparation for ESP vocabulary tests in class. When I was doing these tests I used the book. So I could scan through the text one more time and prepare for a test much better.

Of course, formal tests in class were much more difficult because we couldn’t use books then and all information should be in our minds.

Scared to Death: The Link Between Stress and Coronary Heart Disease

Summary

It is the fact that long-lasting stress affects human’s organism negatively. Many researchers are trying to establish the link between stress and heart disease.

To begin with, scientists carried out a number of studies to establish that link. One research reveals that people who experienced certain traumatic events such as violence, physical abuse or neglect in childhood are more likely to have a heart disease later in life. Other research examined patients who have experienced the first heart attack in their lives. This research showed that smoking, cholesterol profile, high blood pressure and obesity increase the probability of heart attack.

Stress can lead to heart diseases directly and indirectly. Increased blood pressure, induced inflammation and other physiological changes are direct effects on the heart that are caused by stress hormones. Moreover, people who suffer from stress can start to behave wrongly. Indirect effects on the heart are smoking, poor eating habits, lack of exercise and so on.

All in all, it is important for people to cope with stress because it has negative consequences which can be reason of heart diseases.

Stress Busters

Summary

Nowadays there are a lot of stressors in people’s lives. It is important to cope with stress that is caused by daily hassles. Alexander Garrett discovered how people can run away from background stressors.

Firstly, it is a good way to deal with stress by distinguishing personal life and work. In this case, a person can relax and forget work problems at home. What is more, domestic task or cooking a meal could be a good way to cope with stress because people can both mull over the events of the day and see gratifying results such as neat and tidy house or delicious meal.

In addition, people can forget about the stress in a gym or joga class. In this case, they can also improve their physical condition and become healthier. Furthermore, for some people writing is the way to unwind themselves because it helps forget the outside world.

All in all, there are many ways in which people can cope with stress and they are really simple and ordinary. The most important is to find one's own way to deal with stress.

GREAT DREAM

Everyone wants to live happy and successful lives. Great Dream is ten keys to happier living.

First key to happiness is giving. It means that it is very important to do things for others. When people give something to others they also give delight to themselves because they get from others happy smile, warm hug or something like this.

What is more, happy people connect with others. Human being is sociable creation and what people need is relating.

Furthermore, exercising is a good way to take care of the body and become healthier. It also lets to forget the daily problems.

People who notice pleasant details in the world are happier because they appreciate what they have.

Trying out is also important key that leads to happiness. When people learn new things they have an opportunity to improve their lives.

In addition, humans who have goals can live more efficiently. They seek what they want and little troubles don’t prevent them to seek their goals. So it is important to have direction of life.

Resilience is also important key for happy people. When people find ways to bounce back to normal life they save their time and can do things which are enjoyable for them.

It is the fact that optimist are happy person who are taking a positive approach. So it is important to express emotions.

Of course, two of the most important keys are acceptance and meaning. Everyone should be comfortable with who they are and feel that they are a part of something bigger.

References:

http://www.actionforhappiness.org/poster-great-dream

Happiness in Different Countries

What is happiness? There are so many definitions that define happiness. Little children think that happiness is new tow, lovely dog, shiny day or something like this. However, it is not very accurate. It would be better if we define happiness as a state of well-being during which people are having positive emotions and mood.

I would like to compare happiness in three different countries – Lithuania, United States and Tibet.

Firstly, little about Lithuania and perception of happiness here. Unfortunately, Lithuania is not one of the happiest country. It falls to the end of the list. One measure of unhappiness is suicide rate and there are really high number of suicides in our country. What is ineresting that males are more likely to kill themselves that females. On the average 8 of 10 self-murderers are males. So it is a fact that some lithuanians are not satisfied with their lives. Crisis, lower salaries, higher taxes, reports about murders, stealing and other bad events are words that are frequent in Lithuania. So maybe people think that the life is not so good and happy.

American have a different understanding of happiness. The American Dream is an idea which suggests that all people can succeed through hard work, and that all people have the potential to live happy, successful lives and a lot of people from United States have such dream. They think that happiness is a feeling when a person has a good job, earn lots of money, have an opportunity to allow their children to study in prestigious universities and so on.

Finally, I would like to talk about happiness in Tibet. There are totally different perception of happiness. According to a monk from Tibet, people can‘t find happiness or peace simply by changing their external surroundings and what they need is a change on the inside. In this case, people can find their plenitude and happiness and it is important to know that life is not a competition where people should seek to be better than others.

All in all, happiness is subjective state and all people perceive it really differently. For one person it could be money, big house or other material things and for other – it could be the harmonious life and the inner peace.

References:

http://thehappinessshow.com/HappiestCountries.htm

http://junling.wordpress.com/2008/01/30/comparing-happiness-of-different-countries/

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-american-dream.htm

http://sermons.logos.com/submissions/84661-Finding-Happiness-in-Tibet#content=/submissions/84661

Biorhythm

Biorhythm is an attempt to predict various aspects of a person's life through simple mathematical cycles. So I would like to compare my biorhythms and test results that I have got. When I had been taking my test my primary rhythms wasn’t really high. All of these were lower than midline. My physical intellectual biorhythm was about -50% and Emotional and Physical biorhythms were about -90%. However, I have done my test very well on that day – I got 100 %. What is more, I felt happy and energetic. So I don’t think that biorhythms are reliable because there was no link between my test results and biorhythms on that day.

References:

http://www.facade.com/biorhythm/personal/?Name=Rugil%EB&Month=7&Day=22&Year=1991&tMonth=3&tDay=31&tYear=2011&range=14

http://biorhythms.perbang.dk/?aid=29&name=Rugil%26%23279%3B&d=22&m=7&y=1991&t=19&min=05&z=2&phy=1&emo=1&inte=1&custom_lang=en&js=&ctrl=&custom=1&js

Cloning

To begin with, the idea of cloning animals was first suggested in 1938 by German embryologist Hans Spemann. So since then everything began and has been developing until now.

Firstly, I would like to talk little about the first mammal which has been successfully cloned from an adult cell. It was sheep named Dolly. She was cloned in Scotland. Although she seems healthy enough, she lived only six years – from 1996 until 2003. Dolly died from progressive lung disease and now her remains are at Edinburgh’s Royal Museum.

What about human cloning? Today science is not so far advanced that it could be possible for scientists to clone a human. I suppose that it is not necessary to do it because there is too much risk. Cloning is not natural process and we don’t know how it can affect a cloned human’s organism.

Of course, there are a lot of myths about it. There are some reports about cloned human but it is not truth because it hasn’t scientific proof. Moreover, some people think that clone is a copy of a real person, but it is not true. Clones aren’t exact copies. A human clone would be as similar as the genetic identical twin. A clone would have its own personality, character, intelligence and talents. It is impossible to clone a person’s brain or mind.

In my opinion, cloning is useful only for medical purposes when particular organs are cloned and transplant into human’s body. In this case, a lot of lives could be saved and people wouldn’t die from so many diseases. In addition, cloned organs would be genetically identical to a particular person so there is high probability that these organs would be accepted.

All in all, there are a lot of unanswered questions about cloning and I suppose that it would be good if people used cloning for medical purposes. On the other hand, it is not natural and we don’t know how it can affect a human.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloning

http://www.bionetonline.org/english/content/sc_cont5.htm

http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/cloning.shtml

Stress test

I would like to review results of a stress test that I have taken.

My overall score is 4,19 on a range of 1 to 5. This score is a measure of overall emotional well-being.

The second score assess my quality of life. My assessment is 4,1. This is a measure of how happy or satisfied I am with my life, including overall self-esteem, health, friends and family and work or school. I think this evaluation is quite good and it reflects my quality of life. I feel happy with my life and although I have only few friends but, I suppose, they are really great and reliable people.

The third score measures my symptoms of depression, anxiety and hostility. My score is 4,22. This score means that I am quite well-adjusted. I suppose that this is true because I am not depressive and blue person. Of course, sometimes I feel sad for particular things but this feeling is not so strong and it don’t last for a long time.

The last is level of functioning score. This is a measure of how well I am able to get along in the community. My score is 4,25. In my opinion, I can socialize quite well but sometimes it is difficult to me to interact with people who I don’t like.

All in all, I would like to say that I think this test isn’t very reliable because, for instant, when I feel bad, I think that my friends are not as good and my life is not so well. So I suppose that the score depends on a person’s mood and isn’t always accurate.

References:

www.lessons4living.com/stress_test.htm 

 

Giving Entire Cultures a Personality Test

Summary

It is thought that every member of a nation has personality traits which are typical in all cultures. There are a lot of stereotypes such as British people are unemotional and reserved, German people are organized and so on.

A large group of researchers tried to answer the question whether it is true. They investigated people living in 50 different cultures by a test that can be used cross-culturally. Researchers also wanted to know common beliefs about people from those cultures.

According to results of the study, members of a particular culture were able to give consistent summaries of their national character. What is more, the summaries of national character did not match the actual personality profiles of individuals within those cultures.

All in all, a national character shows how people see themselves within a culture but it does not reflect the actual personality traits.

Personality Test

I'm going to review results of two personality tests that I have taken.

Firstly, I would like to review results of Jung Typology Test. According to this test, my type is ISFJ. It means that I am slightly expressed introvert and  I have moreately expressed sensing and feeling personality and slightly expressed judging.

The second test was The Big Five Personality Test. There are five personality traits – openess to experience, concientiousness, extravesion, agreeableness and neuroticism (or emotional stabilty). According to this test, I‘m somewhat conventional. I think it is true because I am skeptical of innovation. On the other hand, I am creative and curious. This test shown that I‘m introvert. It means that I tend to be reserved and quiet. I‘m agree with it because, in my opinion, I have more traits that are typical for introvert than extravert. What is more, my assessment of neuroticism was 60 percent. It means that I tend to become anxious and nervous. Yes, sometimes I am worried and concerned about various things but I suppose that my concern is not too intense. I can be relaxed and calm and don‘t worry over little thing.

All in all, I suppose that these tests are quite reliable but we shouldn‘t blindly rely on them. It is not enough to take one or two tests in order to find out the personality. 

References:

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp

http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/

English Language Invasion

Summary

Invasion of the English language is becoming a huge problem in other countries such as France or Chinese. It is fear that English can take over the local language.

To begin with, English invasion into French is clearly noticeable. There are a lot of areas where French was changed to English. Some organizations and unions constructed slogans in English. It is thought that English invasion could be avoided but there was lack of political will. What is more, statistics states that French is becoming less popular.

Moreover, Mr. Hugan, chairman of the International Federation of Translators, is the person who is strongly resisting English invasion to Chinese. In his opinion, this phenomenon causes a lot of problems and, according to him, using English does not make people open-minded and international. However, although Gu Yeugo agrees with Mr. Hugan, he also supposes that English invasion is a global phenomenon and there is no way that China can stop it.

All in all, it is the fact that English makes considerable influence on the nation, traditions and customs and it is natural that people are resisting invasion of foreign language. However, it is almost impossible to stop this phenomenon.

References:

Articles: “Chinese language damaged by invasion of English words” and “English invasion threatens French language more than Nazis did”.

Self-esteem

Self-esteem, also called self-respect or self-love, is a term used in psychology to reflect a person’s overall evaluation on his or her own worth. In short, it is somebody’s opinion of oneself. High self-esteem is a good opinion of oneself and low self-esteem is a bad opinion of oneself.

Many early theories suggested that self-esteem is a basic human need or motivation. American psychologist Abraham Maslow, for example, included self-esteem in his hierarchy of needs. He described two different forms of esteem: the need for respect from others and the need for self respect. According to Maslow, when people fulfill a need for self-esteem, then they can seek the last self-actualization need. So self-esteem is the next-to-last need in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

But it is not good when people have not enough or too much self-esteem. Not enough self-love can lead people to become depressed and hopeless or to tolerate abusive situations and relationships. People who self-esteem is low can see themselves as victims. But there are some ways in which people can improve their self-respect. For example, people with low self-esteem should get their facts right and take a realistic view of themselves. Moreover, everyone should know that disappointments and failures are a part of daily life and life isn’t always fair. On the other hand, too much self-respect results in an inability to learn from failures. And it’s occasionally a sign of narcissism.

All in all, I would like to say that it is really important to have high (but not too high) self-esteem because it helps to keep a positive outlook on life.

References:

http://www.mind.org.uk/help/diagnoses_and_conditions/increase_your_self-esteem

http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/emotional_health/mental_health/emotion_esteem.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-esteem
(2011-02-11) 

Multiple intelligences test

I have taken multiple intelligences test and I’m going to review my results.

Test shows that I have good naturalistic and interpersonal intelligences. I got 20 points. That means that I may be nature smart and I like the world of plants and animals. It’s true, because I have a dog and I really like flowers. There are a lot of flowers in my room. But it is interesting that when I came to Vilnius and I left flowers at home with my mother flowers started to fade. So I suppose that my mother hasn’t as good naturalistic intelligence as I have. Actually, I don’t think that my interpersonal intelligence is as good as shows results of the test. Of course, I like socialize with others and be with people, but I like to be alone too. In my opinion my intrapersonal intelligence are better that interpersonal. I think I know more about myself than about others. In addition, I’m writing a diary.

The least is my musical and linguistic intelligences. I got only 10 points. Although I enjoy the music, I don’t like play with musical instruments and I think it is quite difficult to me and it is true that I’m not linguistic smart because I don’t like writing and I read books really rarely with pleasure. Of course, now I have to read a lot, because I’m studying, but it isn’t really fulfilling.

My kinaesthetic and logical intelligences were assessed 18 points. I agree with it. I suppose that it is quite good assessment, because I like sports and I enjoy doing exercises. Moreover, mathematics wasn’t difficult for me when I was at school. So I think I may be number smart.

In my opinion, this test is quite reliable, because it shown results that I think aren’t lie.