Jim: Hey Claire, youve been really quiet these last few days. Is something wrong?
Claire: Ive been really stressed. Its the end of the year and Ive got so much stuff to do! I feel like Im drowning in work.
J: Well, stress is a real thing. Its not an imaginary condition.
C: Its seriously affecting my life! I cant sleep, I dont have much of an appetite and my husband says Ive been kind of short tempered. Other people seem to handle stress okay...why am I so weak?
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Claire近期一直不太说话，原来是由于到年底了，有做不完的事情，Ive been really stressed. 她感觉重压特别大。Claire说，I feel like Im drowning in work. Drown, d|r|o|w|n, drown 溺水，在这里是一种比喻的说法，drown in work 意思是自己快要被工作压垮了。Claire不只睡眠不好，食欲差，而且还动不动就发脾气，short tempered。大伙都有重压，是否只有Claire承压能力差呢？ Jim说，
J: Youre not weak...youre stressed out! Stress has been a part of the human condition for millions of years. Back when we still lived in the trees we had to watch out for predators...and as you might imagine, that was pretty stressful.
C: Yeah, but I dont see any tigers or leopards roaming around our office. My stress is just about silly paperwork!
J: But youre actually having the same reaction as our tree|dwelling ancestors! Its called the flight or fight response. Each time you feel like somethings threatening you, your body decides whether to run away or fight...it causes all sorts of chemical reactions in the body.
Jim安慰Claire说，这是身体对过度重压所做出的反应，就仿佛原来住在树上的老祖宗，随时随地要watch out for predators警惕捕食者的来袭，虽然现代人重压的来源变了，但Claire面对重压，身体做出的反应还是一样的，这种反应叫flight or fight response，要在逃跑还是交战之间做出选择。Claire似懂非懂。
C: So a deadline will cause that same reaction?
J: It could. Modern humans actually have more flight or fight responses than our ancestors did. They just had a couple of close calls every day, but today, we have dozens or even hundreds!
C: So the life of a cave woman was less stressful than my life?
Jim说，跟生活在树上的老祖宗相比，现代人天天面对的flight or fight的状况更多。他们以前天天可能只有几次遇见危险，close calls，a close call指险些发生的霉运，譬如 I was almost run over by a car. It was a close call.（我差点没被车撞到，太悬了）。假如真像Jim说的，现代人比史前人类cave man或是cave woman面对的重压还大了？大家下次继续听。
