Stress, stressed, stressful
(Answers to the quiz)
    1. My sister gets stressed very easily.
    2. The last 3 months have been a very stressful time for Mary.
    3. Go easy with George. He's been under a lot of stress recently.
    4. Our new manager has just resigned. They reckon he couldn't take the stress.
    5. What do you think is the most stressful job in the world?
    6. I think her recent illness may be stress-related.
    7. She's been feeling terribly stressed since she started her new job.
    8. Bringing up children can be stressful, but it can also be very rewarding.
    9. I don't think he's the best person for this job. He's very prone to stress.
    10. I hope George is going to be OK. He's really stressed-out about his exams and he's finding it hard to concentrate.
    11. Some companies encourage their workers to take stress management courses.
Further Comments
    When you are studying words like STRESS, STRESSED and STRESSFUL, it is important to know the meanings of the words, but it is also VERY, VERY IMPORTANT to notice some of the typical phrases and collocations in which they occur. Here are some examples from the sentences above:

    GET STRESSED VERY EASILY
    In Japanese you have phrases like these: Watashi ha naki-yasui desu; Watashi ha warai-yasui desu. Sometimes I hear students translate these as I am easy to cry; I am easy to laugh. What you should say is:
    • I cry very easily
    • I laugh very easily.

    UNDER A LOT OF STRESS
    Notice that the preposition, under, can be used with stress. Also, we can say through:
    • She's been through a lot of stress recently.

    HE COULDN'T TAKE THE STRESS
    Notice that the verb, take, can be used with stress. We can also say:
    • He couldn't stand the stress
    • He couldn't handle the stress.
    • He couldn't cope with the stress.

    PRONE TO STRESS
    One dictionary defines prone as: "Likely to do something or suffer from something, especially something bad or harmful." If someone is prone to stress, it means that they are likely to get stressed vey easily. We can also say: He's very stress-prone. Other phrases in which we can use prone include:
    • He's very accident prone (often has accidents).
    • Tight muscles are very prone to injury (example from Longman Advanced American Dictionary).

    STRESSED-OUT
    This is a phrase which means that somebody is suffering so much from stress that they can't do anything.

    A STRESS MANAGEMENT COURSE
    These are courses in which experts teach people how to handle stress and not let it interfere with their happiness and efficiency.
    We hope you've enjoyed this lesson, and that you haven't found it too stressful. There are now more than 100 lessons in Bob's one-point lesson archive. Please click on the link below if you want to try some of them:
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    © Robert E. Jones, 2005