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attribute everything to unpleasantness at work, money worries, health anxieties, or social problems.

Only one in seven or eight attempted suicides is

‘successful’. Women attempt to commit suicide much more frequently than men. However, men are four times more likely to actually commit suicide than women. The most frequent method is an overdose, but fatalities from this method are few.

The most reliable suicide method is by hanging. Ten years ago an elderly American woman carried out what became known as the 'suicide of the century'. She attached a long rope to the balcony of her skyscraper with a noose so that one end reached the ground and the other end would tighten up in flight, she took a fatal dose of sleeping tablets, stood on the edge of the balcony, and shot herself in the head with a revolver. In this way an ordinary American pensioner contrived to kill herself in four different ways.

Specialists often cite this case as evidence that those who make unsuccessful attempts really do not intend to die. Any suicide victim whose decision is irrevocable makes very careful preparations. In such cases there are no overdoses with long-expired pills, weak ropes or defective bullets.

Does one have the right to take one's own life? To whom does human life belong? To the person, his nearest and dearest, the state of God? In some countries - Canada, Denmark, Chile - suicide attempts are punishable by law. But history has known periods when suicide was a cult. In ancient Rome patricians preferred to depart from their life early rather than become a burden to their relatives in their declining years. In Japan, the highest form of valour and revenge was hari-kiri.

In Russia it was always thought that only sick people killed themselves. In 1716, the future Tsar Peter wrote in the Poteshny Regiment Rules and Regulations: «If someone kills themselves, then an executioner should drag their body through the streets, then take it away to an inaccessible place and bury it.»

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In recent years the suicide rate in Russia has gone up. Personal loneliness has been added to social loneliness, the fear of losing one's job, one's home, the ground under one's feet. In Russia, in 1998, there were 45 suicides per

100,000 which is a terribly high figure by world standards. In England the figure today is nine per 100,000 and in pre-revolutionary Russia the 'norm' was three per 100,000. The WHO has acknowledged that today in Russia suicide is a slowly unfolding crisis.

When someone starts talking about killing himself and tells his closest friends about it, they should not let him out of their sight for a moment, and keep in constant touch with him. At such times human contact is more important than even before. Doctors advise those who want to cope with delusions on their own that they should buy a ticket for a long train journey, and unburden their soul to the first person who comes along, it will take a great load off their minds.

II.Answer the following questions:

1.What attempts do chemists make to find out apparent reasons of suicides?

2.Is there a predisposition to suicide?

3.Who is at a more risk of committing suicide?

4.What does the highest risk category consist of?

5.How do extroverts deal with their emotions?

6.What arc the most possible reasons of suicide?

7.What is the profile of a typical potential suicide?

8.Who commits suicide more frequently: men or women?

9.Has suicide ever been a cult?

10.Why has the suicide rate in Russia gone up?

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Text 12

I. Read the text and give its general idea:

Depression In College Students

Depression is widespread among college students. As many as 78 percent of college students suffer some symptoms of depression. Forty-six percent of the students have intense enough depression to make some professional help appropriate. At least twice the rate of suicides occur among college students each year as among nonstudents of similar age.

Why are these students, a more competent and advantaged group than the general population, such easy prey to depression? There are many possible reasons. Many students are living away from home for the first time. They must cope with situations that require new kinds of adaptive behaviors. In addition, because colleges bring together the most talented and achieving students from many high schools, staying at the top is much harder, and competition is fierce. Many students who have always been near the top of their classes can't face the prospect of a less outstanding position. Often students aren't sure what career they want to follow. They may spend time feeling guilty about the money their parents are spending on their education and feel an obligation to be successful even when they have no clear idea of what to do with their lives. At first, they may have few people to whom they can turn for comfort or reassurance. Their old friends are back home, and the effort required to make new friends may cause some anxiety. Severe loneliness and feelings of isolation result.

Self-destruction is also a serious problem among college students. The suicide rate for the college population is 50 percent higher than for the general population. Each year 100,000 college students threaten

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suicide and some 1,000 actually kill themselves. This problem is found not only in the United States, but in European countries, India, and Japan as well. During a nine-year period, twenty-three students enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley committed suicide. Compared to their nonsuicidal classmates, these students appeared to be moody, drove themselves harder, and were depressed frequently. Their depression often took the form of extreme agitation. Most of them gave recurrent warnings of their suicidal intent. The major precipitating factors seemed to be worry about schoolwork, concerns about health, and difficulties in their relationships with others.

Most of the students who feel depressed do not seek professional help either within the college or from outside sources. They try to handle the problem by working harder, by talking to friends, or by dropping out. Colleges have tried to cope with these problems in a variety of ways.

Perhaps one effective way to reduce this problem is to make students aware that what they are experiencing is not unique. The majority of students have the same discomforts. This might help them decide more intelligently how to deal with depression and where to seek help. Rather than attributing academic difficulties to intellectual deficiencies, the student might be made aware that emotional stress and depression may cause sadness and less motivated behavior, which also might interfere with academic performance.

II.Answer the following questions:

1.How many percent of college students suffer depression?

2.What are the possible reasons of such a situation?

3.Are these reasons social or psychological?

4.Self-destruction is also a serious problem, isn't it?

5.What data are given concerning a suicide rate among college students?

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6.What countries are mentioned in connection with it?

7.How did these suicidal victims behave on the eve?

8.What were the major precipitating factors of their depression?

9.How do depressed students very often try to cope with their problems?

10.What is the effective way to reduce the problem of

depression?

III. Choose the right variant:

a)At least thrice the rate of suicides occur among college students as among nonstudents.

b)At least twice the rate of suicides occur among college students as among nonstudents.

c)At least four times the rate of suicides occur among college students as among nonstudents.

WORD STUDY

I. Give Russian equivalents for:

To commit suicide; for no apparent reason; predisposition; hereditary; to inherit the principle of behavior; to be at a risk of; to deal with emotions; protracted contemplation; to be on the border-line; to be inclined to; a charitable association; overwhelming majority; to cope with delusions.

II. Make up all possible word-combinations with the word «suicide»:

To commit; a predisposition to; an attempt; a center; gene; a risk of; a victim; prevention of; a thought of; a reliable method; a century; n rate; to threaten.

I I I .	Give English equivalents for:
Категория	высокого риска; при определённых об-

стоятельствах; трагическое восприятие реальности;

бессонница; расстаться с жизнью; бремя; жестокая конкуренция; чувствовать вину; обратиться за утеше-

нием; саморазрушение; несуицидное поведение;

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суицидное измерение; преобладающие факторы; академическая успеваемость.

IV. Give synonyms for:

Inherited; to deal with; to be prone to; to attempt suicide; to take place; a victim of depression; to demand; to feel responsibility; overwhelming factors; to relieve a problem; to search for.

V. What word-combinations may be used to characterize:

1.Suicide causes.

2.People at a high risk of committing suicides.

3.Suicide victims.

4.Depression as a psychic state.

5.Severe loneliness.

6.Effective ways to reduce depression.

Text 13

I. Read the text and try to explain why it is called in this way:

Hypnosis

«Useful In Medicine, Dangerous In Court»

The use of hypnosis is spreading. The technique has been accepted by the American Medical Association, the

American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association. In addition to many encouraging clinical reports, there is now a growing body of research which helps to clarify the nature of hypnosis and supports its use in a variety of areas.

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We know that hypnosis has many useful applications in medicine, such as in the treatment of pain. It can lower an individual's level of arousal, and it helps in the treatment of stress. It is effective in the treatment of some forms of asthma and in certain skin disorders. It can even help modify the response of the body's immune system. Hypnosis is also used in psychiatry in a variety of ways: in the context of psychodynamic therapy, to uncover feelings and memories; in the context of behavioral approaches, to facilitate imagery.

The medical uses of hypnosis are not controversial: what is controversial is the use of hypnosis in questioning suspects and witnesses to solve crimes.

If hypnosis is used to create pseudo memories, it can be extremely dangerous in the courtroom. If you use hypnosis to convince a jury that an innocent man is guilty, it can lead to a terrible miscarriage of justice.

Many of the effects of hypnosis wear off rapidly. Typical posthypnotic suggestions do not tend to persist over long periods, but hypnosis can permanently distort memory if the hypnotized subject comes to believe that he has remembered something that had not actually occurred.

Like any therapeutic techniques, hypnosis has certain risks. Used in competent hands for appropriate reasons, hypnosis is very effective.

Hypnosis is a state or condition where the subject focuses his mind on the suggestions of the hypnotist so that he is able to experience distortions of memory or perception. For the time being, the subject suspends disbelief and lowers his critical judgment. A good way to think of it is that your mind becomes so focused that you really get into fantasy. You become so absorbed in what you are thinking that you begin to experience it as reality.

Dramatic results have been achieved in the relief of asthma and some other allergies. This is because hypnosis can at times modify the body's immune system and block some of the allergic reaction. Hypnosis can be quite effective in arresting intractable hiccups and treating some

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forms of severe insomnia. One of the more interesting uses is in the treatment of certain kinds of warts and some skin disorders.

Hypnosis is very effective in the control of pain.

Children with leukemia, for example, must undergo a painful procedure to obtain bone-marrow specimens to assess their condition. With hypnosis you can relieve the anxiety associated with the anticipation of pain and help these children to tolerate this procedure relatively comfortably.

Hypnosis is not very effective in treating disorders of self-control. It won't make you do something that you can do voluntarily if you put your mind to it - but that you really don't want to do for a variety of conscious and subconscious reasons.

In getting people to stop smoking, the success rate with hypnosis has not been dramatic. It's more a help in controlling the discomfort associated with quitting rather than in quitting itself. For people trying to lose weight, hypnosis is only moderately and occasionally effective. For control of drugs and alcohol, hypnosis is virtually useless.

In most cases of alcohol and drug abuse, there are complex psychological reasons that prevent the mind from responding to hypnotic suggestions for self-control. Finally, hypnosis has very little use in the major psychoses. It is rarely, if ever, the treatment of choice for severe depressions, mania or schizophrenia.

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II. Translate into Russian the second part of the text starting from the paragraph the beginning of which sounds like that: «Hypnosis is a state or condition...»

III. Give Russian equivalents for:

Technique; a growing body of research; a variety of areas; to uncover feelings and memories; psychodynamic therapy; suspect; anticipation of pain; to tolerate a painful procedure; to respond to hypnotic suggestions.

IV. Give English equivalents for:

Полезное применение; уровень возбуждения; пове-

денческий подход; невиновный; виновный; внушение; сознательные и подсознательные причины; сильная депрессия; шизофрения; спорный.

V. Translate into Russian:

Hypnosis; hypnotic session; hypnotic suggestion; posthypnotic suggestion; hypnotized subject; hypnotist.

VI. Make up sentences. Choose the correct ending.

1.	Hypnosis	is useful	a) controlling discomfort
in ...			b) reducing anxiety
2.Hypnosis is effective			c)producing suggestions
in ...
3.Hypnosis		is	d) modifying the response of the body's
controversial in ...			immune system
4.The use of hypnosis			e) treating insomnia
is	doubtful in ...
			f)overcoming addictions
			g)the treatment of pain and skin
			disorders
			h)	competent	hands	for
			appropriate reasons

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i) questioning suspects and witnesses

j)creating pseudomemories

k)facilitating imagery

l)solving crimes

m)treating psychoses

n)relieving allergic reactions

o)convincing a jury to take a decision

p)tolerating a painful procedure

q)lowering one's critical judgment

r)treating self-control

s)losing weight

VII. Make up a list of positive and negative effects of hypnosis.

VIII. Answer the following questions:

1.What associations have accepted the technique of hypnosis?

2.What useful applications has hypnosis in medicine?

3.How is it used in psychiatry?

4.What use of hypnosis is controversial?

5.Why can hypnosis be dangerous?

6.Do typical posthypnotic suggestions persist over long or short periods?

7.Can hypnosis distort memory in any way?

8.Is hypnosis a risky procedure?

9.There is a definition of hypnosis in the article. What is it? Do you agree with it?

10.What happens to the hypnotized subject?

11.Where is hypnosis very effective?

12.Is it possible to relieve pain under hypnosis?

13.Can hypnosis help overcome smoking and drug addictions?

14.Can hypnosis help overcome alcohol abuse?