Đề thi thử THPT Quốc gia môn Tiếng Anh trường THPT chuyên Lam Sơn - Thanh Hóa năm 2015

LONG HOURS AND HEALTH DON’T MIX 

Women are much healthier when they (1)___ it easy, (2)___ a new survey. Those who work long hours are more likely than men to indulge in unhealthy behavior such as eating snacks, smoking and drinking caffeine. (Long hours have no such (3)___ on men.) One positive benefit of long hours for both sexes, however, is that alcohol (4)___ is reduced. 

The study, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, is (5)___ of a wider study by psychologists from the University of Leeds, into the effects of stress on eating. “Stress causes people to (6)___ for unhealthy high-fat and high-sugar snacks in preference to healthier food choices,” says researcher Dr. Daryl O’ Connor of the University of Leeds. “People under stress eat less than usual in their main meals, including their vegetable (7)___, but shift their preference to high-fat, high-sugar snacks instead.” 

“Our (8)___ are disturbing in that they show stress produces harmful changes in diet and leads to unhealthy eating behavior,” continues Dr. O’ Connor. “An overwhelming (9)___ of evidence shows the importance of maintaining a balanced diet in (10)___ of reducing the risk of cancer and cardiovascular diseases – and that means eating a low-fat diet and five portions of fruit and vegetables a day.”

My earliest memory is one of incredible trauma. When I was five, my older brother and I crept downstairs on Christmas morning to light candles on the tree, and his pyjamas caught fire. As he ran around the room in flames, I knew I had to fetch a bucket of water, but shock rooted me to the spot and I could do nothing. He’s still scarred, and the incident had a lasting impact on me, too. Ever since, I’ve been driven by a need to help heal other people. When I was 18, I started studying medicine, but I never really got into it. The course wasn’t what I’d expected and I took some time out to think about what I really wanted to do. But before I had a chance to start a new course, I’d fallen in love and was married. 

I was sad to give up my studies but I put our marriage first. We had three children, but by the time the third was born, our relationship was falling apart. After nearly five years, I realized nothing was going to change unless I made it happen myself, so I persuaded my husband to leave. It was the hardest thing I’d ever done. 

(A) So there I was, 29, on my own, with three young children to bring up and very little money. Things were bleak. I knew I had to get on with bringing up the children. (B) My salvation was living in such a lovely place – (C) it was so beautiful that just looking at the landscape was a form of therapy. (D) 

But back then, nature also supported us on a practical level. I realized that if I saved a few potatoes and planted them, I could grow my own. I taught myself as I went along, and learned how to use birch leaves and nettles from the garden to make soups. The children and I would go to the woods to pick blackberries and collect mushrooms and firewood. I also kept bees for honey. I’d always loved the outdoors, but for the first time I found myself looking at plants and thinking about what I could use them for. The children still remember those times as idyllic, but I knew I couldn’t go on living like that forever. After a few years, as I built up my confidence, I decided I had to start using my brain again. I considered resurrecting my medical ambitions, but in the end I turned down a place to study medicine in Dundee as it would have meant studying 70 hours a week, which was unfair on the children. 

Then I heard about a homeopathy course, which was held one weekend a month in Newcastle. It was the mid-eighties, when homeopathy wasn’t so widely accepted, but I had faith in it because my parents had used it. Suddenly I had an energy I hadn’t felt for years because I had regained control of my life. Healing people with homeopathy made perfect sense because it is based on the relationship between nature and ourselves, rather than being about automatically prescribing drugs. 

For the first few years after I qualified, my surgery was a room in my house. It was exciting – people told their friends about me, so I never had to advertise, but it wasn’t easy working from home. The children were very good but I felt guilty telling them they had to be quiet, so I started working from treatment rooms at clinics alongside other complimentary therapists. But before long I found I was working six days a week. It was exhausting traveling between clinics and it dawned on me that with the money I was paying in rent I might as well have my own place. 

Eight years ago, I opened my own clinic in the centre of Edinburgh. I was totally out of my depth in the beginning and simply looked around until I found premises and took on the lease. I had no savings; I just planned to pay the rent with the money as it came in. I had no idea to run a business back then. I was no naïve I didn’t even know you had to pay rates, until I received a huge bill! But I began to realize that running a business is a creative process, too. I was determined that my lack of business skills wouldn’t let me down, so I taught myself the basics, kept things simple and, when things went wrong, I learned from my mistakes. 

Running the clinic was my dream. I have three treatment rooms and I treat my patients in one of them, while the other two are rented to other therapists. There’s also a shop where I sell natural healthcare products and natural beauty products that I’ve made. These days I work six days a week – three days spent treating people and the other three in the shop doing the accounts and making products. 

I’ve learned you have to accept the negative things in life and use them to move on. You can’t hide from them. It’s hard when things go wrong, but it does help to clear out all the things that don’t matter and lets you focus on what does. But more than anything, I’ve realized that it’s worth pushing for what you want, because if you are lucky enough to find work you believe in, it can totally transform you.