Post by Admin on Dec 10, 2015 13:20:52 GMT
It is a fact that people nowadays are under a lot of pressure and their lives are becoming increasingly stressful. What could be the possible reasons for this? What are some solutions to address this issue?
These days people are experiencing higher and higher levels of stress. I think the reasons for this are manifold, but that increasing competition and decreasing quality of life are the two most significant.
Life today is more competitive than ever. Children compete at school for the best grades, students for places at university, and graduates for jobs. The pressure to perform causes inordinate stress, with more high-school suicides in the past decade than in the previous half-century. At work, employees jockey for position and have to work longer and harder to maintain their place or get the promotion they need. There is also competition for housing, with people struggling to pay rent or mortgages in the cities where they have to go to find work. As a result, quality of life suffers. People have little to reflect or relax. Their health suffers through anxiety and overwork, and the effects of resorting to junk food or eating on the move as they commute through polluted, overcrowded streets.
One solution is for schools to put less emphasis on exams and more on coursework, and for governments to provide alternatives to university education in the form of apprenticeships. Employers, too, could ensure living wages so that workers can maintain a respectable standard of living. They, as individuals, also have to be less materialistic and enjoy life with friends and family instead of ‘keeping up with the Joneses’. In addition, allowing people to work from home away from city centres would reduce stress, at the same time as improving the urban environment for those who live there.
All in all, individuals, companies and governments all have to do what they can to reduce the stress of daily life and improve its quality instead.
[289]
Less common vocabulary
K4: commute
K5: apprenticeships, jockey, junk
K6: overcrowded
K8: overwork
K9: inordinate
K10: manifold
www.ieltsexchange.com
These days people are experiencing higher and higher levels of stress. I think the reasons for this are manifold, but that increasing competition and decreasing quality of life are the two most significant.
Life today is more competitive than ever. Children compete at school for the best grades, students for places at university, and graduates for jobs. The pressure to perform causes inordinate stress, with more high-school suicides in the past decade than in the previous half-century. At work, employees jockey for position and have to work longer and harder to maintain their place or get the promotion they need. There is also competition for housing, with people struggling to pay rent or mortgages in the cities where they have to go to find work. As a result, quality of life suffers. People have little to reflect or relax. Their health suffers through anxiety and overwork, and the effects of resorting to junk food or eating on the move as they commute through polluted, overcrowded streets.
One solution is for schools to put less emphasis on exams and more on coursework, and for governments to provide alternatives to university education in the form of apprenticeships. Employers, too, could ensure living wages so that workers can maintain a respectable standard of living. They, as individuals, also have to be less materialistic and enjoy life with friends and family instead of ‘keeping up with the Joneses’. In addition, allowing people to work from home away from city centres would reduce stress, at the same time as improving the urban environment for those who live there.
All in all, individuals, companies and governments all have to do what they can to reduce the stress of daily life and improve its quality instead.
[289]
Less common vocabulary
K4: commute
K5: apprenticeships, jockey, junk
K6: overcrowded
K8: overwork
K9: inordinate
K10: manifold
www.ieltsexchange.com