He woke up. He got out of bed. He went to the restroom and took a shower. The water was cold at first. He made it warm. He took ten minutes to shower. He stepped out of the shower. The floor became wet. He grabbed a towel. He wrapped it all around him. He went to his bathroom mirror. He saw his reflection. He looked handsome. He had grown facial hair. It was time for him to shave it. He grabbed the shaving cream and poured some in his hand. He spread the shaving cream around his face. He grabbed the razor and started shaving. He cut himself by accident. It started bleeding. He was not hurt. He washed his face and applied aftershave. He put a band-aid on his cut. The cut stung him a little. He dried himself, and started getting ready for work. 

BT1, Getting ready for work

Now, the VOA Learning English program Words and Their Stories.
Have you ever felt pure fear, a fear that makes you act in a way you normally would not?
That is panic. Panic is a great fear that makes otherwise normal people do abnormal things.
To hit the panic button means to panic suddenly. Another common expression iswidespread panic. It describes an event that causes panic among large numbers of people. For example, “The spread of disease caused widespread panic throughout Europe during The Middle Ages.”
The origin of the word panic comes from the Greek word “panikos.” According to Greek myth, Pan was the god of flocks and shepherds. Greek legend says that Pan was half human and half goat. He lived in the woods and in the fields. His angry voice was so scary that it caused panic to anyone who was unlucky enough to be nearby.
According to one Greek myth, Pan fell in love with a beautiful nymph. A nymph is a spirit that takes the shape of young woman and lives in the mountains, forests, meadows and water. Pan tried to capture her, but she ran away. The nymph hid in a river taking the form of a reed, a thick, hollow grass that lives in the water.
The wind made a song as it blew across the hollow reeds.
Pan did not know which reed was the nymph. So, he took a handful and joined them together side-by-side and carried it with him to hear the music it played.
Today, we call this instrument a pan flute.
Of course, this is just the Greek story. Pan flutes also have a long history in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.
Just like the pan flute, panic can be found everywhere.
Mental health experts treat people with panic disorders. The American Psychological Association defines a panic attack as “a sudden surge of overwhelming, or extreme, fear that comes without warning and without any obvious reason.”
The word panic also describes economic or financial disasters.
The most infamous financial panic in the U.S. was the stock market crash of 1929. Some people on Wall Street where stocks were traded were so panicked that they jumped from their office windows.
Panic is also a great literary tool.

American writer, Jack London
Jack London was an American writer who wrote “The Sea Wolf.” He left school at age 14 to become a seaman. Published in 1904, “The Sea Wolf” has a panicked ship-wreck scene that is partly based on Mr. London’s experience as a sailor in the Pacific Ocean.
Two ships crash together in the ocean. Women passengers scream with panic as the ship goes down into the freezing ocean waves. As one man finds himself adrift alone in the sea, another type of panic takes hold of him.
“I was alone. I could hear no calls or cries--only the sound of the waves, made weirdly hollow and reverberant by the fog. A panic in a crowd, which partakes of a sort of community of interest, is not so terrible as a panic when one is by oneself; and such a panic I now suffered. … I confess that a madness seized me, that I shrieked aloud as the women had shrieked, and beat the water with my numb hands.”
Panic is a powerful tool in myth or literature but not so much in real life. So, next time you feel extreme fear taking hold of you, causing you to lose all reason, remember to remain calm. And don’t panic.
I’m Anna Matteo.
Christopher Jones Cruise read the passage from Jack London’s “The Sea Wolf.”
Anna Matteo wrote this for VOA Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor.


bt2, Don't panic

Mari: Hi, I’m Mari. I’m here with Ron. Ron is from Hawaii. So Ron, what is so special about Hawaii?
Ron: Well, Hawaii is my home, but to people not from Hawaii, I think Hawaii is famous for its nice weather, its warm all year ‘round, also it’s known for its beaches. The beaches are very nice. And it’s also known for its warm hospitality. The people are also very nice.
Mari: So can you tell me more about the weather? It’s always sunny? It never rains?
Ron: It does rain, but often it rains and it's sunny at the same time, so we have a lot of rainbows. Hawaii is also famous for rainbows.
Mari: That’s nice. Can you tell me more about the beach?
Ron: We have beaches on all shores of the island -- all our islands. There’s many beaches to choose from. And often, some beaches have big waves, some beaches have small waves, and you can choose which beach to go to depending on whether you want to surf in big waves or you want to swim where there’s no waves.
Mari: Can you tell me maybe about the nature in Hawaii?
Ron: We have forests, so there’s lots of animals, like birds, and small animals like wallabies: we have Hawaiian wallabies and they live in the forest.
Mari: What’s a wallaby?
Ron: Wallabies, they’re those little mammals from Australia and they were introduced in Hawaii and now they’re wild in Hawaii. They’ve become their own species.
Mari: What do they look like?
Ron: They look like little kangaroos I think.
Mari: Interesting. Any other interesting animals in Hawaii?
Ron: We have a lot of pigs, wild pigs. We like to go hunting for them and we like to eat them.
Mari: Are there any animals that live in the sea?
Ron: We have nice coral reefs, so there’s lots of beautiful fish in our coral reefs and many people like to go snorkeling to look at our reefs. We also have turtles and seals in Hawaii.
Mari: Are there any whales?
Ron: We do have whales during the months of March till February I believe. They come from Alaska and they come to Hawaii during those months and then they return to Alaska.
Mari: Wow, there are a lot of animals that live in Hawaii. Sounds like a great place to visit.

bt3: hawaii

Einstein once said, “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” Philosophers and scientists from Aristotle to Einstein have known throughout history that walking in nature can boost creativity.

When we walk our heart rate increases, pumping blood and oxygen into our brains. The rhythm of our feet stimulates our minds. And because walking requires little mental energy, our thoughts are free to wander in new and creative ways.

Walking, and especially walking in nature, doesn’t just stimulate our creativity. According to recent research, it also makes us healthier and happier.

Yoshifumi Miyazaki of Chiba University studied the effects of nature on stress. He organized two groups of volunteers. Eighty-four of them walked in nature and eighty-four of them walked in a city. After just a 15-minute walk, the nature walkers demonstrated lower levels of stress. Their blood pressure fell by 2 percent, their heart rate decreased by 4 percent, and their levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, dropped by 16 percent. Miyazaki thinks that humans have evolved to be more relaxed in nature.

Stanford University Professor, Greg Bratman, is also researching the connection between walking in nature and health and happiness. He specifically focused on rumination, which is a cyclical focusing on negative thoughts. Most people have had the experience of getting into a negative funk. Whether we are worrying about the future or beating ourselves up over past mistakes, it isn’t always easy to shake negative thoughts. According to Bratman’s research, the antidote to these negative states could be simple.

Bratman sent 38 volunteers to walk in nature and another 38 volunteers to walk in a city. Before the walk, they filled out surveys about their emotional states. Bratman also scanned the volunteers’ brains to measure blood flow in the prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain associated with negative thinking. After returning from their walks, the nature-walking group reported fewer negative thoughts and their brain scans backed them up. Bratman believes that nature positively influences where we put our attention.

While most of us don’t need science to tell us that nature is healing, perhaps it can nudge us to step away from our screens and spend more time outdoors.


bt5: walk your way to health and happiness

B : Did you finish your homework for English class?
G : Homework? There wasn’t any homework.
B : We had to finish reading a book and then write a 200-word essay on it.
G : I don’t think Ms. Jones gave us any homework. I always write what I have to do in my notebook.
Did she really tell us to write an essay?
B : Yes. Look, here’s my essay. See?
G : Oh no! What am I going to do? We’ve only got 10 minutes before class starts.
B : I don’t know. Maybe Ms. Jones will let you hand it in tomorrow.
G : Hey, let me copy your essay. I’ll change a few words. Ms. Jones will never know.
B : No, I’m sorry. That’s not the right thing to do.
G : Oh, come on! I thought you were my friend.
B : I am your friend. That’s why I’m not letting you copy my work!

bt:Where Is Your Homework?

People need to consider important factors when choosing a career. In my opinion, the most important factor is to choose a job that goes well with your personality. Are you an outgoing person who loves meeting new people and talking to them? Perhaps you should become a tour guide or a teacher. Are you shy? Maybe you should be an accountant or a scientist.
Remember, you will do your job almost every day. If you have to change your personality when you work, you probably won’t be very happy. And neither will the people you work with. Nobody wants an unfriendly tour guide or an impatient teacher. Are you a moody person?
In most jobs, you will be expected to control your emotions. That’s hard to do if your mood changes often. In that case, you might want to work alone. Perhaps you could be a writer or an artist.
There are other factors to consider, such as salary and status. However, what good is a large salary or high status if you don’t like your job?
You should consider your personality, find out what you are very good at doing, and then find the right career to go with all this. Too many people choose a career because it pays well. Too often, they find they don’t like their jobs. But by then they feel like they’re in a trap, and they can’t escape. Finding a good career is important. Think about it and choose carefully.

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