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Some Research Suggests Illness Goes Up When the Stress of Work Goes Down.Skeptics Are Immune to This Theory.

Bing Crosby was a wishful thinker.All his dreaming of a white Christmas，merry and bright，hid what the holidays often are to many busy people:sickening.But it may not be the eggnog，the endless holiday music or even the pounds of sugar cookies that are making you ill.It may be the same thing that seems to set you back when you finally head for a weekend of winter sports or jet off for a week on the beach: You're off work.

Ad Vingerhoets，an associate professor of clinical health psychology at Tilburg University in the Netherlands，calls it“leisure sickness.”Just when you take a break from your busy schedule to enjoy a little relaxation，your leisure time beComes anything but—full of aches and pains，cold—and flu like symptoms and other health complaints.

“The simple idea we have—that when you are busy，your body is activated，and when you are not busy and have nothing to do，your body is relaxed—is simply not the whole story，”Vingerhoets said.“For some people，［a holiday or vacation］seems to be pathogenic.”

Sure，some say this is pop psychology，and there are experts who are skeptical.However，even some who dismiss leisure sickness as a wastebasket diagnosis concede there is science to support the idea that unwinding is difficult for many of us.

The underlying cause of the problem，according to Vingerhoets，appears to have a lot to do with stress.He has been fielding calls about the theory since 2001，when his team of researchers reported on their survey of 1，893 Dutch people in which about 3 percent of respondents indicated that they seldom felt ill during work days but got sick during weekends and vacations.Many attributed their symptoms to difficulties transitioning from work to non-work，to stress associated with travel and to balancing a heavy workload.

Respondents who identified themselves as workaholics or perfectionists tended to have a much harder time relaxing than others.

Paul J.Rosch，president of the American Institute of Stress in Yonkers，N.Y.，and a professor of medicine and psychiatry at New York Medical College who has been involved in stress research for more than 50 years，is one of the skeptics.An inability to relax on vacations and holidays has long been a well-known characteristic of Type A behavior，he says.

Leisure represents a time when they are not in control，Rosch explains； the headaches，nausea and fatigue they might experience are a response to this stress.“It's all psychosomatic...not a bona fide diagnosis，”he said.

But Esther Sternberg，a researcher of neuroendocrine immunology at the National Institutes of Health，disagrees.Sternberg，the author of“The Balance Within:The Science Connecting Health and Emotions，”calls leisure sickness a real condition，tied to the release of hormones under stress and their interaction with the nervous and immune systems.

In times of stress，the body's adrenal glands release adrenaline，which makes the heart beat faster and causes you to feel sweaty and anxious.Adrenaline gives a boost to the immune system，the body's defense against infection，Sternberg said.But while adrenaline is pumping，so is cortisol—a potent anti-inflammatory hormone also released by the adrenal glands.

“The reason［cortisol］works as an anti-inflammatory is because it's turning off the immune cells，”Sternberg said.“...You're no longer able to effectively fight infection.”

The two hormones are timed differently，with adrenaline starting up and shutting down within milliseconds，much faster than cortisol，which takes five to 10 minutes.

“What happens when you stop doing what it is you were doing that stressed you is that the adrenaline shuts off first，”Sternberg said.“You are left with this cortisol floating around.And if at that moment someone coughs in your face，you get sick.”

Don't like that hypothesis?How about this one:Vacations and holidays involve greater exposure to germs that make you sick.Then there's the psychological theory:Much of the year，busy people ignore the signals they are sick because they don't have the time to acknowledge the symptoms.

But Sternberg said stress hormones go a long way toward explaining why most people who suffer from leisure sickness on vacation experience their symptoms within the first couple of days after they stop work，a pattern Vingerhoets observed in his survey.

“There is a science to it.There is a biology to it，”Sternberg said.“It's not really psychosomatic because the term“psychosomatic”carries with it the baggage of implying that it's not really real...But there is enough evidence in other settings that we can draw upon to say that leisure illness is probably a real phenomenon.”

What leisure sickness lacks in empirical evidence it makes up for in anecdotal evidence.

“I have spoken with people from many countries—from South America to Brazil to Australia，”Vingerhoets said.“In all of these countries，they recognize it.”

Suena Huang，an instructor of psychiatry at George Washington University Hospital，said it may require rethinking your outlook on success.

“There's a relationship between certain personality types and the amount of perceived stress，”Huang said.“Someone who's a perfectionist may impose higher expectations on himself and bring about higher anxiety on himself［than others would］.Instead of seeing perfection as the goal，perhaps seeing a balance as the goal would be one way to go—working leisure activities and relaxation time into each day.”

Huang said she sees many patients with workaholic personalities who are prone to leisure sickness.She encourages them to be more accepting of their imperfections.

“If you're under such chronic stress that you're impairing your immune system，you need to pace yourself，balance yourself，”Sternberg said.“You can't expect to push your body to the breaking point and not have it break.”

1.Why does the writer think Bing Crosby is a wishful thinker?

2.What does the writer think of this leisure sickness phenomenon? Approve?Dismiss?Neutral?

3.How much do you know about the relationship between and among personality types(workaholics and perfectionists for that matter)，stress management and liability to sickness?

4.According to Sternberg，how do the two hormones affect stress and the so-called leisure sickness?

5.What do you think of the syndrome discussed in the passage?How relevant is it to your life and work?

Downtime:本义是指机器停运时间或故障时间　The period of time when something，such as a factory or a piece of machinery，is not in operation，especially as the result of a malfunction.这里是指不上班时间(the time when someone stops working and is able to relax)，一词多义在阅读报刊文章时应特别注意。

Eggnog:Eggnog is a sweetened dairy-based beverage made with milk，cream，sugar，beaten eggs(which gives it a frothy texture)，and flavoured with ground cinnamon and nutmeg；alcoholic versions also exist with the addition of various liquors，such as brandy，rum，and whiskey known as Advocaat.Eggnog is a popular drink throughout the United States and Canada，and is usually associated with winter celebrations such as Christmas and New Year.Commercially，nonalcoholic eggnog is available around Christmas time and during the winter.

Wastebasket diagnosis:A wastebasket diagnosis or trashcan diagnosis is a vague or fake medical or psychiatric diagnosis that is given to the patient or to the medical records department for essentially non-medical reasons.It may be given when there's obviously something wrong but the doctor doesn't know what it is，when the doctor wants to reassure an anxious patient about the doctor's belief in their symptoms，when the patient is pressuring the doctor for a label，or when the doctor wants to facilitate bureaucratic approval of treatment.The term may also be used pejoratively to describe disputed medical conditions where the prognosis of individuals with the condition is more heterogeneous than would be associated with a more precisely defined clinical entry.As diagnostic tools improve，it is possible for these kinds of wastebasket diagnoses to be properly defined and reclassified as a clinical diagnosis.

Type A:It is relating to a behavior pattern marked by tenseness，impatience，andaggressiveness，oftenresultinginstress-related symptoms such as insomnia and indigestion and possibly increasing the risk of heart disease.(参见文化导读)

Psychosomatic:It is relating to a disorder having physical symptoms but originating from mental or emotional causes.Relating to or concerned with the influence of the mind on the body，and the body on the mind，especially with respect to disease.Anorexia nervosa is an example of a psychosomatic illness.If someone has a psychosomatic illness，their symptoms are caused by worry or unhappiness rather than by a physical problem.

Anecdotal evidence vs.empirical evidence:Anecdotal evidence has two distinct meanings.First，evidence in the form of an anecdote or hearsay is called anecdotal if there is doubt about its veracity:the evidence itself is considered untrustworthy or untrue.Second，evidence，which may itself be true and verifiable，used to deduce a conclusion which does not follow from it，usually by generalizing from an insufficient amount of evidence.For example“my grandfather smoked like a chimney and died healthy in a car crash at the age of 99”does not disprove the proposition that“smoking markedly increases the probability of cancer and heart disease at a relatively early age”.In this case，the evidence may itself be true，but does not warrant the conclusion.In both cases the conclusion is unreliable；it may not be untrue，but it doesn't follow from the“evidence”.

The term is often used in contrast to scientific or empirical evidence，such as evidence-based medicine，which are types of formal accounts.Some anecdotal evidence does not qualify as scientific evidence because its nature prevents it from being investigated using the scientifiComethod.Misuse of anecdotal evidence is a logical fallacy and is sometimes informally referred to as the“person who”fallacy(“I know a person who...”；“I know of a case where...”etc.Compare with hasty generalization).Anecdotal evidence is not necessarily representative of a“typical”experience；statistical evidence can more accurately determine how typical something is.

When used in advertising or promotion of a product，service，or idea，anecdotal reports are often called a testimonial，which are banned in some jurisdictions.The term is also sometimes used in a legal context to describe certain kinds of testimony.Psychologists have found that people are more likely to remember notable examples than typical examples.

Leisure Sickness:Leisure Sickness，similar to Paradise Syndrome，is the name given to a purported psychological condition，not universally recognizedbypsychologists，bywhichsomepeople(typically characterized as workaholics)are more likely to report feeling ill during weekends and vacations than when working.The syndrome is similar to Paradise Syndrome，inwhichthepatientsuffersafeelingof dissatisfaction despite having achieved all their dreams.This phrase was coined by Dutch psychologists Ad Vingerhoets and Maaike van Huijgevoort，who presented a paper titled Leisure sickness:An explorative study at a meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society on March 7，2001.Symptoms include headaches(even migraines)，fatigue，muscular aches and pains，and illnesses such as cold and flu.Sufferers(and for about 3％of the population，this occurs every weekend)，typically have，according to the authors，an inability to transition from the work to the non-work environment，a high need for achievement and a high sense of responsibility.In this connection，there is a hierarchy of five humanmotivationalneedsarrangedbyascendingorderof importance，developed by Abraham Maslow.The five ascending needs are(1)physiological，(2)safety，(3)social，(4)esteem，and(5)selfactualization.Only unsatisfied needs are motivators.Once a need is satisfied，the next level emerges as a motivator.

Personality type:个性与健康The concept of personality type refers to the psychological classification of different types of individuals.Personality types can be distinguished from personality traits，which Come in different levels or degrees.Types involve qualitative differences betweenpeople，whereastraitsinvolvequantitativedifferences.According to type theories，for example，introverts and extraverts are two fundamentally different categories of people.According to trait theories，introversion and extraversion are part of a continuous dimension，with many people in the middle.While typologies of all sorts have existed throughout time the most influential idea of psychological types originated in the theoretical work of Carl Jung(瑞士心理学家及精神病学家荣格)，who developed his theories from Hindu philosophy and alchemical based reasoning.Modern typologies such as Socionics，MBTI，and Kersey all have roots in Jungian philosophy.

One well-known example of personality types is Type A theory.According to this theory，impatient，hostile people are classified as Type A，whereas calm，laid back individuals are designated as Type B.The theory originally suggested that Type A individuals were more at risk for heart attacks，but this claim has not been supported by empirical research.

Several pop psychology theories(e.g.Men Are from Mars，Women Are from Venus)rely on the idea of distinctively different types of people.The term“type”has not been used consistently in psychology and has beCome the source of some confusion.Furthermore，because personality test scores usually fall on a bell curve rather than in distinct categories，personality type theories have received considerable criticism among psychometric researchers.One study that directly compared a“type”instrument(such as the widely used Myers-Briggs Type Indicator)to a“trait”instrument found that the trait measure was a better predictor of personality disorders.Because of these problems，personality type theories have fallen out of favor in psychology.Most researchers now believe that it is impossible to explain the diversity of human personality with a small number of discrete types.

Type A/B personality theory is a personality type theory that describes a pattern of behaviors that were once considered to be a risk factor for coronary heart disease.Since its inception in the 1950s，the theory has been widely popularized and also widely criticised for its scientific shortcomings.

Type A individuals can be described as impatient，excessively timeconscious，insecure about their status，highly competitive，overambitious，business—like，hostile，aggressive，incapable of relaxation in taking the smallest issues too seriously and are somewhat dislikes by the way that they are always rushing and demanding other people to serve to their standards of satisfaction.They are often high and over-achieving workaholics who multi-task，drive themselves with deadlines，and are unhappy about the smallest of delays.Because of these characteristics，Type A individuals are often described as“stress junkies.”Type B

going.There is also a Type A/B mixed profile for people who cannot be Clearly categorized.

●An intrinsic insecurity or insufficient level of self-esteem，which is considered to be the root cause of the syndrome.This is believed to be covert and therefore less observable.

Type A/B theory has been criticized on a number of grounds.Because of these criticisms，Type A theory is considered to be obsolete by many researchersincontemporaryhealthpsychologyandpersonality psychology.

Pop psychology:注意此词因不同上下文会有两种迥然不同的含义。The term popular psychology(frequently called pop psychology or pop psych)refers to concepts and theories about human mental life and behaviour that are purportedly based on psychology and that attain popularity among the general population.The term is often used in a dismissivefashiontodescribepsychologicalconceptsthatare oversimplified，out of date，unproven，misunderstood or misinterpreted； however，the term may also be used to describe professionally-produced psychological knowledge，regarded by most experts as valid and effective，that is intended for use by the general public.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/print/the-magazine/cartoons/12331/allwork-and-no-play.thtml

Business wants GPs to sign“well notes”rather than sick notes，but for some people getting back to a normal life may be a cure in itself.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/career_and_jobs/recruiter_forum/article3465835.ece

If you're off work for illness，you can still claim holiday pay and perhaps soon we'll be able to claim sick days on holiday.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/non-fiction/article612174.ece

英语新闻报刊中的观点类文章。观点类文章(Opinion)分社论、评论、分析等，是本课程编者所倡导的阅读重点，即所谓软新闻。社论是报刊编辑部发表的群体性评论。阅读社论可对该报刊对时事的基本立场、观点与政治倾向略知一二。社论(editorial)因其代表性而往往略显严肃、乏味、干涩，文采较暗淡。与社论不同，评述(commentary or analysis)则是带个人色彩较浓的署名文章。这一点便与社论不同。同时，评论虽也报道事实，但分析立论是其根本目的，与纯硬新闻也不同。因其署名，评论文体活泼、文采丰富，常引经据典，因而是英语学习者很好的学习语源。除普通评论外，有些报纸还设有所谓的Op-Ed版面。Op-Ed即opposite editorial(page)，指社论的对页版，刊文大多也是出自较有分量与文采的新闻作者之笔。观点类文章中最值得读者关注的是那些专栏作者。重要报刊里都有其举足轻重的Columnists。《纽约时报》旗下就有文学评论家Stanley Fish，诺贝尔经济学得主Paul Krugman以及经常棒喝美国的Thomas Friedman。英国《金融时报》的Gideon Rachman，Christopher Caldwell，John Gapper以及Jonathan Guthrie等专栏作者的分析文章也是精辟独到。《华盛顿邮报》的Charles Krauthammer，Jim Hoagland，David Ignatius，Robert J.Samuelson以及Fareed Zakaria等专栏作者的文笔也是幽默犀利。《经济学家》的分析文章因其言简意赅也是深受读者喜爱，可惜其文章一律不署名而成为“集体创作”。《经济学家》之所以这么做是出于其“所写的内容比谁写的更重要”之信念(“what is written is more important than who writes it”)。其曾任编辑Geoffrey Crowther如是说:Anonymity keeps the editor“not the master but the servant of something far greater than himself.You can call that ancestorworship if you wish，but it gives to the paper an astonishing momentum of thought and principle.”

Ⅰ.According to the article，determine which statements are true and which are false.

1.This passage implies that popular psychology is not really reliable.

2.Studies show that，unlike perfectionists，workaholics are more prone to leisure sickness.

3.Wastebasket diagnosis is synonymous with bona fide diagnosis.

4.Sternberg uses stress hormones like cortisol and their interactions with the nervous and immune systems in explaining leisure sickness.

5.Vingerhoets dismisses anecdotal evidence as unscientific.

1.Ad Vingerhoets thinks________.

A.when we are not busy and have nothing to do，our body is relaxed

B.weekends and vacations seem to cause disease for some people

C.leisure sickness has not much to do with stress

D.none of the above

2.Which of the following is true about adrenaline and cortisol?

A.Both hormones are simultaneously released by the body in times of stress.

B.Both boost the body's defense against infection.

C.The body is very liable to sickness when it is left with cortisol floating around with adrenaline already shut off.

D.Cortisol turns off the immune cells.

3.In this passage，the following hypotheses are mentioned to prove the leisure sickness syndrome except________.

A.psychosomatics and personality types

B.Sternberg's two hormones on stress

C.greater exposure to pathogenic germs during vacations and holidays

D.the psychological theory that busy people tend to ignore sickness signals because they don't have the time to admit the symptoms

4.Suena Huang suggests that________.

A.personality types and perceived stress are related

B.new thinking on success helps alleviate leisure sickness

C.people，especially those workaholics and perfectionists，are encouraged to be more tolerant of imperfections

D.all of the above

5.From the passage，we know that Vingerhoets gathers information from at least the following countries on his leisure sickness theoryexcept________.

A.the Netherlands

B.Brazil

C.the United States

D.Australia