Review Test 2 Audio Script

You will hear a psychologist giving a talk about happiness. However, psychologists such as Seligman are convinced
we can train ourselves to be happier. Seligman and his
Can science measure happiness and if so, can it teach
team have developed treatments to counteract negative
us to be happier? These are no longer just the concerns
feelings. Their approach is quite different to the Freudian
of the self-improvement industry but subjects that merit
tradition, where the response to unhappiness has been to
serious academic debate.
analyse the individual’s past and discover how problems
Many major surveys have been undertaken worldwide to experienced as a child are preventing the search for future
measure what makes people happy. These surveys have happiness. Seligman believes this encourages a culture
produced some predictable results but also some less of ‘victimology’ which makes people passive. Instead
predictable ones. For example, the happiest time of our Seligman prefers to encourage people to set themselves
lives, according to some surveys, is not when we’re young, some objectives, be optimistic and take action to achieve
when we are often at our most dissatisfied, but when them.
we’re older.
In a study in the UK run by Richard Brookes of Wells
Marriage increases happiness, as one might have University, volunteers from the same town were given
predicted, although more so for men than women. a ‘happiness charter’ outlining the positive changes
However, achieving goals such as fame often has a they needed to make to increase their happiness. The
negative impact on our sense of well-being. Interestingly, volunteers then attended workshops over the following
once a reasonable standard of living has been reached, ten weeks to explore which of the changes actually
money adds little to our happiness. worked. One foundation stone for happiness proved to
One survey focused on the 10% of people who described be simply physical. Brookes found that helping volunteers
themselves as ‘very happy’. The psychologists found that to identify small steps to a better diet and a manageable
what distinguished this group was that they spent the level of exercise was more beneficial than encouraging
least amount of time alone and were the most sociable. I participants to take up greater challenges such as running
guess they had little time to feel lonely. a marathon or climbing Everest.

So just why do so many people find it difficult to be Work was also important. Brookes tried to get the
happy? One explanation may be negative thinking, which volunteers to increase their job satisfaction by lowering
is deeply ingrained in the human psyche, rather than their expectations. Brookes and his team looked at ways
actual life situations such as a lack of career progression, of getting people to enjoy their current work more by
for instance, which we may well expect to cause misery. focusing on the positives. They felt this was a more
achievable goal than getting people to look for a more
Professor Martin Seligman of the University of fulfilling job. It also challenges the mind-set many people
Pennsylvania argues that because human brains adopt of thinking that if they had a better job or more
developed during times of ice, flood and famine, we have leisure time, they’d be more contented.
what he calls a ‘catastrophic brain’, meaning that the way
the brain works is to concentrate on problems, which Brookes believes that the most important path to
worked for our ancestors but doesn’t work as well in the happiness may be found in our relationships with our
modern world. families, our colleagues and our communities. The
volunteers discovered that by focusing on the happiness
Seligman also argues that modern humans find it difficult of those around them, they increased their own sense
to be happy because they are on what he describes as of well-being. This came as a surprise to many of the
a ‘hedonistic treadmill’. This causes us to rapidly and volunteers, who had previously equated being happy
inevitably adapt to positive occurrences or developments with having a good time. Brookes also encouraged the
in our lives by taking them for granted. The more volunteers to perform a small act of kindness every day
possessions and accomplishments we have, the more we because he claims this reduces our sense of alienation in
need in order to maintain our level of happiness. It’s a the modern world.
vicious cycle.

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Review Test 2 Answer Key
Listening Writing
1 older Sample answer
2 money
Differences in lifestyle and eating habits between
3 sociable
generations are normal. However, there is a view that
4 Negative thinking
some changes are not positive for children, and indeed
5 problems
there is also concrete evidence that children’s general
6 adapt
health has been negatively influenced. In this essay, I will
7 treatments
give my view on this topic.
8 objectives
9 exercise In many countries, children’s diets may include items
10 kindness such as frozen foods or ready meals, which were unheard
of in their grandparents’ day. While such foods are not
Reading necessarily unhealthy, certainly children may suffer from
a lack of fresh produce. This change in shopping and
1 D
cooking habits is most likely due to people, including
2 B
children, living much busier lives than in the past.
3 E
4 A Another lifestyle factor which we cannot ignore is that
5 C of physical activity, or, to be more precise, lack of it.
6 D This is blamed on computer and video games and TV
7 B culture. Although some do not consider children playing
8 H outside or participating in sports to be important, there
9 G are clearly various health benefits from engaging in such
10 E activities, which carry through to adult life.
A combination of poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle in
the early years of life does not bode well for a person’s
health in the future. There is now increasing evidence
of the consequences of this, as obesity is becoming a
burden on health services. Indeed, the health resources
being used to combat obesity might outweigh those
required to deal with other illnesses.
I believe that a sedentary lifestyle and poor diet leads to
unhealthy children, and adults. To my mind, education is
the key to controlling the rise of obesity-related illnesses
among children.

Speaking
Please use the IELTS Speaking assessment criteria to score
your students.

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