Text #1 for translation classes (elementary/lower-intermediate levels)
Based on Шленкина В.И., «Английский язык. Социальная психология или что должен знать каждый подросток? Современное образование, Москва, 1997 г.»
What everyone should know about themselves
Text 1
Being a young person you should know that becoming an adult is very difficult. It’s important to know that everybody has a hard time growing up, that everybody has feelings that are sometimes difficult to understand and deal with, that everybody has problems with parents and that everybody needs friends.
Understanding feelings, relationships and attitude is the first step in dealing with them. Let’s begin with your feelings.
FEELINGS
Everyone has feelings, even if they can’t always describe them accurately. Anger is a feeling, so is joy, so is sadness, so is fear. Basically, there are two kinds of feelings: pleasant and unpleasant. When two opposite feelings occur at the same time, people say that they have mixed feelings. They become confused and often don’t know how to act, like when someone really hurts you. The way you feel at different times tells you a lot about yourself and what is important to you.
The strength of your feelings tells you how important the feeling is. That, too, tells you a lot about yourself. Everybody wants to be happy, to experience joy, love, affection and all other good feelings. Happy feelings aren’t a problem. Just enjoy them. But uncomfortable feelings get in the way of happy feelings. They prevent you from feeling good by draining your energy.
To begin to understand your feelings find a quiet place where you can sit down and think. We shall help you to understand yourself more.
