1. Stress
Stress in my life is a quite common thing caused by many different situations, like for example: hard test at school or too many responsibilities at work. Stress causes me to blush and makes my hand shake so all the people see how nervous I am. That makes me more stressed and so it goes round and round, I really hate it.
I get stressful situation quite often and so it influences my health in a very bad way. I become very nervous when I’m supposed to face any hard problem and with every minute my nerves are more and more frayed, which I think is simply ruining my health.
Next thing is that I am a smoker and stress makes me smoke much more than I usually do so it’s also an example of bad affects of stress.
And how do I cope with it? Usually I just try to stay calm, I keep repeating to myself that “there’s nothing to be afraid of and it’ll be alright” and so one. Another thing I do, as I mentioned earlier is smoking. I’m aware that it’s very bad habit but I do it anyway, I believe it makes me feel confident an assured of myself.
2. Illnesses
There are many different illnesses that are frightening people a lot these days. Most of these illnesses are incurable kind and because so they are so frightful.
I think the main frightening diseases are every kinds of tumors, which are hard to diagnosis and most of them are ended with death. Although we have a quite high medical level around the world, it’s very hard to survive through the cancer and that’s why it scares a lot of people.
Other very dangerous and therefore quite frightful sickness is AIDS which devastates all human body. In late stadiums a simple flu can become mortal. Many people, including me, are frightened of infection, because few moments or inattention can become a cause of painful death.
Lastly, I believe that some illnesses that come along with elder age are frightening a lot of people. It can be diseases like Alzheimers, arthritis or heart diseases. Most of these sicknesses are just making it hard to live normally and causes that these people are dependent of the others.
In my opinion these illnesses are a real threat to our society because we’re yet unprepared for such a hard situations. It’s understandable that many people are afraid of these diseases , so in conclusion we all should look better after ourselves and just don’t give up when faced with any kind of illnesses.
3. Stereotypical image of Polish
Poles outside our borders are often considered in other way than we really are, because most of the others are following and believing stereotypes. It’s also worth to notice that we also sometimes cause spread of these stereotypes.
The most popular and unfortunately negative stereotype is that Polish are drunks or thieves, or even both. It’s quite harmful opinion judging the whole nation on the basis of some group of criminals.
Anyway there also are some positive gossips about us like that we are a hard workers or that our education is on very high level. As before I believe that there also are exceptions of this rule and not all of the Poles fit in this stereotype. Though, I think we should do everything to succeed in this image of our nation because it can be our great strength.
In conclusion, I believe that there are many different images of Polish among the whole world, it depends on us how these images will evolve with time. All the stereotypes can tell us how other nations see us – they show our strengths and weaknesses so we can see what to change in our lives to eliminate the weaknesses and strengthen the virtues.
4. Travelling by plane
Travelling by plane becomes more and more popular way of massive transport nowadays. The great advantage of flying is much shorter time as also the high comfort of every journey, when compared to other means of transport like sailing or driving etc.
Though many convincing advantages, travelling by plane also has some threats that some people, including me, are afraid of.
The most frightening thing is the thought of plane crash. Many passengers are afraid of it because there are nearly no chances of surviving a plane crash. I think that another scary thing is a threat of a terrorist attack which are becoming more often incidents. The danger of terrorist capturing a plane has arisen in past few years specially after attacks on USA at September 11th, but it’s worth to notice that a lot of security systems were improved since then and all the airports are protected better, so many threats are eliminated.
In the end, I must say that there are some sure reasons to be afraid of travelling by plane but in the statistics we can see that there are much more car accidents than plane crashes and in the result there are much more victims in driving accidents all over the worlds.
5. Harsher punishments
Some people believe that introducing harsher punishments will reduce number of crimes, in my opinion some punishments really should be tightened an some should just be changed.
First of all, I must say that not all the punishments should be made harder. For example I’m totally against the death penalty. But some imprisonment punishment ought to be longer. Also I think that more number of prisoners should be directed for some kind of social works which would be useful to the rest of the society.
Next thing to do to reduce number of crimes could be for example making the fines higher, what can work for some kind of less harmful penalties.
The best thing I can imagine to do is just to prevent, especially the youth, against committing crimes. It could be done for example by arranging some after-school classes or other activities which will protect them against some bad behaviors. Unfortunately this process will take a lot of time and it is very hard to accomplish it.
In conclusion, I must say that some harsher punishments can be useful in reducing most of crimes, but it’s worth to notice that not all the tightened punishment will have such an effect.
6. Climate change
Climate change is a very serious problem nowadays. Usually we can’t observe this process, but in future it may cause some irreparable results and damage.
First of all, it is proved that excessive emission of CO2 (carbon dioxide) causes global warming. According to ecologists it may lead to greenhouse effect which results in the rising temperature. Probably in thousand years it will have risen by 15*C. Consequently glaciers will have melted. Therefore it will influence on sea levels. With high water level some low-lying lands will be flooded also many people will lose their homes and belongings. Secondly some areas, especially in Africa will be turned into deserts. Many regions may suffer from lack of drinking water and many people will have to migrate in search of land, food and water.
At the same time many plants and animal species will have become extinct. Climatic conditions may cause very low biodiversity.
Climate change it also makes me think of the ozone hole and acid rains. Ozone hole causes ultraviolet radiation. As a result people are exposed to skin cancer and eye diseases. As for the acid rains, they cause high acidity and pollution of the soil and water. In addition wildlife may die and the fertility of the soil may decrease.
In conclusion, we all should prevent climate change because there are some reasons to be afraid of it. We have the only one Earth and we should unite all together against the threat.
7. Body language
I think body language is very important part of communication between people. Some sources say that it may mean much more than the things we say.
Areas of our body which convey most about how we feel and what we think are our hands and arms and the way we move them may tell much more than our words. Gestures which we are doing are sometimes deliberate, but most often they are done unconsciously and naturally and say more than we think. In general body language shows to others our features and our feelings but it is not always done intentionally.
It’s worth to know what gestures we should look after to define if the person we talk to is nervous, afraid or lying to us. And so, for example if somebody is nervous it’s quite common he will put his hands to his mouth or tap the table with his fingers. Somebody who is afraid or uncomfortable will hold his arms folded tightly over the chest, which is a classic gesture of defensiveness and means you are protecting yourself. Gestures including putting your hand in front of your mouth, touching your nose, rubbing your eyes, touching your ear, scratching your neck, pulling at your collar or putting your finger or fingers in your mouth and often mean that someone is lying.
There are many more gestures of body language we may meet in our lives. It’s worth noticing them, just to know how the others really react to our words.
8. Sleep deprivation
Sleep deprivation according to many physicians is a serious problem, especially in modern societies. Most of people neglect the need of sleep and don’t worry about the consequences of lack of sleep.
Sleep deprivation in our societies are a result of our life-styles, that mostly involves hard, long-hour working with no time to take a proper rest. Another reason of our sleeping problems is the invention of electricity, which lets us stay awake with full lights in late night hours. Thanks to electricity, rather than sleeping we choose watching TV, playing computers games or simply reading late at night. Moreover, to keep our intense life-style at high speed we drink too much caffeine which also deprives us of our sleep.
These habits have influence on our comfort and health as we can feel tired and be in bad mood. In addition sleep deprivation influence on our abilities, because sleepy people can’t concentrate on anything, have problem in making a decisions etc. Also our reactions are much slower which may lead to many various accidents.
In conclusion I want to say that we should take this problem seriously and react against it. When we feel tired it means that we should sleep more. We should go to bed in the same time every day and take a nap during the day. When we have to work or study more at week we should go to bed earlier or get up later in weekend.
9. The most influential mass-medium
There are few types of mass media nowadays like press, radio, TV and Internet. Two most popular mass media are TV and the Internet so these two can be considered as the most influential mass medium these days. In my opinion the influence of these two depends on the age-groups of the receivers. As we know computers and Internet are very popular among the young people, as TV is very popular in the group of the elders, that’s why it’s very hard for me to choose the most influential mass medium of these two.
The popularity of TV is undeniable as we can meet a television set in almost every single house around the world. Most of people watch TV for good movies and TV series, some seek for news and information, some just want simple entertainment. Anyway we all are given a great amount of images and words, and honestly I’m not quite sure if we’re able to decide which is right or which is wrong. All we usually do is just approving and repeating the things we get from TV broadcast.
As for the Internet, things look a little bit different here, because we’re not just given the certain package of information (like on TV), we seek for them ourselves. Here we can choose what to read or what to watch in any particular moment. We still can’t be sure if the information we get from the Internet are really confirmed, however most of us trust Uncle Google boundlessly.
In conclusion, most of us are quite sensitive to the influence of many mass medium because of inability of deciding which information are worth noticing and which are not.
10. Problems of modern cities
There are many problems modern cities face today. The most common problem is of course the widespread of pollution that comes mostly from the factories, but also from ordinary houses. Lack of sewage treatment or garbage incinerator results in accumulation of wastes that influence soil, water and air. By all this we degrade the environment we live in.
Another common problem of modern cities, especially the big ones, is of course too much traffic. Every day during rush hours thousands of people waste their time and money while being stuck in traffic jams. Traffic also have some negative influence over the environment since the cars produce carbon dioxide and other heavy metals so they also contribute in the pollution.
Finally, the most of modern cities are overcrowded which causes the unemployment, civilization diseases like some epidemics, the problem of homelessness, criminal activity etc. The list may be very long.
There should be taken some actions to prevent these problems. For example people should be convinced to use public transport more than cars, try to use less electricity by unplugging the chargers of the contact or sharing some food and change with homeless etc. These little things really may help to defeat some of the problems.
In the end, there are many more problems that occur in modern cities, it is in our hands to take some proper steps to prevent them for our common sake.
11. The most significant scientific discovery ever
I consider computers and internet as the most significant scientific discovery ever made. I believe computers are such a great discovery (invention) because of the number of possibilities they bring to their users, like many different useful applications at work, studying, games ets. Moreover the internet gives us a chance of connecting people from every place all over the world . Also it’s a great database of knowledge and information and it lets us know much more things ten times quicker than just twenty years ago. I think it really changed our lives.
What’s more we should notice that all of us have a personal computer nowadays and also all of us are carrying a one with themselves everyday – and by this I mean the cell-phone which we should remember is a kind of computer too.
So in conclusion, we meet computers at every point of our life these days, at every place we go we are surrounded by them which proves how significant this discovery was.
12. Honesty
First of all the question is what does the honesty means to me? Well for me, it means to be sincere for others and just to respect the others. In details it means avoiding lies, avoiding cheating, not trying to use or abuse or to take advantage of anybody etc. Of course I am aware that this term (or this idea of honesty) may be different for various people and that is the reason why it is quite difficult to stand up to its standards these days.
In my opinion the problem of dishonesty starts at early school days when some kids cheat at tests and exams and most of teachers simply permit them to do so by not punishing them in any way. What’s more, when other children see that cheating is better, because they can get better marks without studying hard, more and more of them also start to cheat, which really isn’t surprising. Of course when some of us see that cheating gives better profits at school, work, relationships etc than being honest and that some kinds of dishonesty are permitted by our society we simply forget to be honest when it is convenient for us.
In the end I must admit that I am not always honest but I try to do my best to live up to the honesty standards.
13. The company
The company I would like to work for in the future will surely have to be connected with my studies (my faculty). I study geodesy and cartography, which turned out to be quite an interesting discipline for me and that’s why I associate my future carrier plans with it.
But firstly I would like to start working for some big companies, that do many different geodetic jobs, where I could gain (or achieve) the needed experience and see how it all works from the inside. After three years of continuous work I will be able to take a special exam that could give me the rights (qualifications) to do the works at my own.
Then after passing this exam I would like to start my own company. Of course at the beginning it would be a very small firm, doing just the small jobs but I hope to maybe let it expand a little bit with time. Most likely I intend to run this firm with my friends, I also see it as a place where there will be a nice and comfortable atmosphere and everybody could wear casual clothes and just to be themselves.
I am not willing to turn it into a very big firm or to beat the competition, the aim is just to have a settled job, be the boss of myself and just to be happy and satisfied with the work I do.
14. Advertising
Advertisements nowadays are a thing that is all around us, we can meet it everywhere: in newspapers, on TV and Internet, at the streets etc. Advertisers use many various tricks to convince us to their products.
In my opinion the most common trick is giving the customers some extra, so called “free” gifts, which in fact aren’t free at all because usually the price of them is included in out payment. Anyway most of people are very attracted to free gifts because the idea of them makes them feel clever or lucky to get something more than the others.
Other popular trick it telling the people that the product is very limited and it will be out of stock very soon so they really have to be quick and buy it immediately. This kind of ad gives us no time to think if we really need the product, just hurries us to buy it.
Another common thing is buying our trust by showing real people or celebrities in commercials, so we can think that if they trusted and chose this product it can’t be the wrong choice and we should do the same.
In the end I must say that there are many more different advertising tricks, that we aren’t even aware of at all. Many of us, including me, fell to them and sometimes choose and buy things we don’t even need.
15. Language
Referring to the topic I agree that language is a very important part of every nation’s identity but I don’t agree that best way of protecting it is preventing any foreign influence in any special way.
Why every nation’s language is so important? Well in my opinion it’s because it identifies us as a part of a greater thing, a greater group which is our nation or our society. Our language identifies us a members of this greater thing.
I believe that language is ought to change with times, and it’s a natural way to change it with foreign influences which by the way is and was happening over and over by past few hundred or even thousands of years and I don’t see any remarkable or any particular reasons why we should especially protect it right now. I can say that I think language will protect itself.
Of course we should be aware that there is no way to avoid all the foreign influences as we are a civilized country, that belongs to many international organizations and we live in so called “global village” where there is a continuous exchange of information, products etc.
Anyway I hope that all of us will use our common sense with introducing foreign words and expressions and in my opinion that’ll be quite enough to protect our unique language.