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.