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随着社会生活节奏的加快，竞争越来越激烈，现代人的压力也越来越大。即使在节假日，人们也无法从工作中逃脱，无法真正放松。而这背后的原因是什么呢？有哪些危害？又有何切实的解决方法？This is why you can’t switch off at the weekendCan’t help checking emails late on a Saturday night? That could be a personality problem – but there are ways to keep these habits in check.（From BBC 30 July 2016）They clock off at 9 pm on a Friday – but their last email is logged at 3 am. They take conference calls on holiday, wake up in cold sweats over looming deadlines – even their sleep talk is peppered with business jargon. By Monday morning, they look like they’ve spent the whole weekend hunched over their laptop, wired on coffee. It’s hard to believe they ever left the office.Why is it that some people just can’t relax at the weekend?Across the globe, a heady mix of individual ambitions, brutal organisational cultures and the technology to make work accessible 24 hours a day is contributing to a spiralling（急剧增长的）crisis of stress. The American Institute of Stress estimates job stress costs the US economy about $300 billion in lost productivity every year. According to research by online travel company Expedia, just 53% of workers come back feeling rested after they’ve been on holiday.1. Across the globe, a heady mix of individual ambitions, brutal organisational cultures and the technology to make work accessible 24 hours a day is contributing to a spiralling（急剧增长的）crisis of stress.Across the globe是句子的状语，句子的主干部分是 “A mix of…is contributing to crisis”；其中 “to make…”不定式（非谓语结构）作为主语的补语表目的。“contribute to” 意味“导致、造成”，同义词组有 “lead to”, “result in”, “conduce to”等。[参考译文] 在全球范围内，个人的事业心、残酷的组织文化和快速发展的科技构成一种令人兴奋的混合体，使得工作二十四小时无处不在，这导致人们面临精神压力急剧增长的危机。In the UK there’s Saturday syndrome, the mysterious tendency of workers to fall ill in their free time – thought to be the result of stress withdrawal（压力戒断症）. In the US there’s the 60-hour working week – a habit known to double the risk of a heart attack. In Japan they’ve even coined a word for the problem; karoshi（过劳死）, or death by burnout.For ordinary office workers like Samantha King, a project manager in the financial services industry in London, even the act of kicking back has become stressful. “If you don’t have a Facebook status or Instagram post – hashtag doing this, hashtag doing that – if you stay away from social media for half a day, people are like ‘are you OK?’”But for every moaning colleague struggling through Monday, there’s the high-powered hotshot who breezes in looking unreasonably fresh – even with a much bigger workload. Why is it that, while some people get ahead, others get sick?2. But for every moaning colleague struggling through Monday, there’s the high-powered hotshot who breezes in looking unreasonably fresh – even with a much bigger workload.句子的主干是 “for every moaning colleague..., there is the high-powered hotshot...” 句型，意思是“有一个这样的同事，就要另外一个那样的同事”。who引导的定语从句修饰先行词hotshot。[参考译文] 然而，有一个呻吟着熬过周一的同事，就总有另一个精力充沛的能人，带着清醒到不合理的表情轻松走进办公室--即使他的工作量要大得多。“When you bring work-related stress home with you, you’re keeping that physiological response activated. If that continues – well, it’s not going to be good for you,” says Jennifer Ragsdale, a psychologist at the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma.For years, research has compared the relative virtues of weekends spent catching up on work to those spent lying in a darkened room or going sailing. But this might be missing the point, says Ragsdale. “Two people experiencing the same thing, they are going to react to it in different ways.”The subject of bouncing back from stress first piqued Ragsdale’s interest back in 2011, when she noticed the recovery gap among her friends – and she’s been striving to get to the bottom of it ever since.For her study, 183 workers from various industries responded to online surveys on a Sunday evening detailing how they’d spent their weekends – and how they felt as a result. Activities were categorised into either low effort (taking a shower) or work-related (personal paperwork, replying to emails).Next, the same workers were tested to determine their emotional disposition. They were given a list of positive (enthusiastic, interested) and negative (distressed, upset) feelings, and asked to report how they’d usually feel.As you’d expect, the group with a positive outlook found it easier to detach from work stresses. Those with high levels of “negative effect” – i.e. people with a tendency to feel angry and frustrated and see the worst in a situation – tended to find it difficult to unwind, whatever they did; even mindless activities like watching TV didn’t take their minds off work, while preparing for the weekend ahead only made them feel more resentful.But it’s a bit more complicated than that because not everyone sits perfectly within one category or the other. Those who scored the highest on positive traits struggled the most with “mastery” – the ability to view difficult tasks as something to be mastered rather than something to be avoided – if they were also prone to wallowing. Ragsdale puts this down to our innate negativity bias: all things being equal, humans can’t help devoting more attention to experiences which are bleak and unpleasant.3. Those who scored the highest on positive traits struggled the most with “mastery” – the ability to view difficult tasks as something to be mastered rather than something to be avoided – if they were also prone to wallowing.该句子的核心结构是“those...struggled the most with...”“Those who…” 是句子的主语，其中those是先行词紧跟着who引导的定语从句。 “the ability to…”是 “mastery”的同位语，是插入部分。“be prone to”+动名词，“倾向于某事”；此处to是介词。[参考译文] 那些在积极特性测试中取得高分的人们如果也有周一纠结症，那令他们痛苦的是“征服欲”——即把困难的任务视为亟待控制而非想要逃避的能力。“We all evaluate the situations we encounter very differently. There’s no ‘one size fits all’ way to deal with stress,” says Ragsdale.According to business psychologist Jane Clarke, for some people, even attempting to relax can be counter-productive. “Knowing they haven’t opened the post for two weeks and they have a lot of work to do, it would be more stressful for them to relax.”This is something Corrine Mills, a career coach based in London, can also relate to. “Some people aren’t very good at sitting down in a darkened room – they need to do something active.” Mills recommends taking up a hobby such as yoga, going for a run, or simply making the time to visit the park – anything that will take your mind off work for a few minutes.If you are one of these people with high “negative effect” tendencies who can’t unwind on the weekends, there are ways to change your mindset. Since our experiences with recovery are down to attitude, not just activity, there are ways to simply change the way you think.Ragsdale suggests learning how to re-frame your thoughts positively – actively trying to see the positive in their jobs rather than ruminating on the bad. Several studies have found that adopting this attitude can reduce the risk of burnout and foster greater initiative, creativity and cooperation after a six month period.So if you succeed in changing your mindset and confine weekend stress to the history books, soon your greatest concern might be what to do with all your free time. Just don’t forget to turn up to work on Monday.looming adj.正在逼近的（syn. imminent）accessible adj.可接近/到达/使用的mindset n.心态；观念；习惯（syn. convention/conception）tendency n.倾向；趋势（syn. trend）burnout n.精疲力竭；过劳死（syn. overwork）activated v. pp. （被）激活（的）categorized v. pp. （被）分类为（syn. divided; sorted）本期话题：How should we deal with crisis of stress in modern society?Across the globe, a heady mix of individual ambitions, brutal organisational cultures and the technology to make work accessible 24 hours a day is contributing to a spiralling（急剧增长的）crisis of stress.在全球范围内，个人的事业心、残酷的组织文化和快速发展的科技构成一种令人兴奋的混合体，使得工作二十四小时无处不在，这导致人们面临精神压力急剧增长的危机。“contribute to”用来表示“造成；导致”的意思，也可用 “conduce to”替换 “lead to”和 “result in”等表达。 “spiralling”即 “spiral”的现在分词形式，表示“螺旋形上升；急剧增长的”较为形象。
2、工作压力带来的危害包括造成国家经济损失和危害个人健康（包括生理和心理）等The American Institute of Stress estimates job stress costs the US economy about $300 billion in lost productivity every year. (工作压力带来的经济损失)
美国压力研究所估计，工作压力致使生产力丢失，每年给美国经济造成的代价大约是3000亿美元。In the UK there’s Saturday syndrome, the mysterious tendency of workers to fall ill in their free time – thought to be the result of stress withdrawal. In the US there’s the 60-hour working week – a habit known to double the risk of a heart attack. In Japan they’ve even coined a word for the problem: karoshi（过劳死）, or death by burnout. （压力对生理健康的危害）英国有星期六综合症，这是一种奇怪的倾向，工人们一到休息时间就开始生病，这种综合症被视为是压力戒断的后果；美国有60小时工作周的说法--都认为这种习惯让心脏病的危险加倍；日本甚至为这个问题生造了一个单词：即过劳死，也就是精疲力尽而死。As you’d expect, the group with a positive outlook found it easier to detach from work stresses.
正如我们期待的那样，持积极态度的群体发现自己更容易与工作压力分开。…actively trying to see the positive in their jobs rather than ruminating on the bad......积极努力看到工作中积极面，而不是斤斤计较消极面。If you are one of these people with high “negative effect” tendencies who can’t unwind on the weekends, there are ways to change your mindset. Since our experiences with recovery are down to attitude, not just activity, there are ways to simply change the way you think. 如果你有高“消极影响”倾向，在周末无法自拔于工作压力，那么也有办法来改变你的思维方式。由于我们恢复的经历归结于态度，而不是行动，因此总有办法来改变你思考问题的方式。Take practical steps to reduce your weekend workloadKeep an eye on the relationships with your colleagues, which can be major source of weekend stress注意与同事的关系，因为这种关系可能是你周末压力的主要来源。Consider doing nothing. The calming influence of passive activities lingers once you return to work.试试什么都不干。这种消极行为可让你心静，当你回到工作中时，其效果会保持。Put on brave face at work then go home and take it out on you loved ones;View all stress as negative – it can help us achieve goals;将所有压力视为消极的--实际上，压力可以帮助我们实现目标。Many people fail to achieve a balance between work and other parts of life. What causes the situation? How to overcome this problem? （March 8th, 2012）
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