went wrong. He imagined the worst that could happen, and if he could live with that, he went ahead. If not, he didn’t take the chance. Other people prefer to stay in what I heard described as the ‘comfort zone’-setting for security, even if it means settling for mediocrity and boredom, too.
Tutor: Would you call top achievers ‘perfectionists’? Amanda: Contrary to what I expected, no, I wouldn’t. We came to the conclusion that a lot of ambitious and hard- working people are so obsessed with perfection that they actually turn out very little work. I happen to know a university teacher, a friend of my mother’s, who has spent over ten years preparing a study about a playwright. She is so worried that she has missed something, she still hasn’t sent the manuscript to a publisher. Meanwhile, the playwright, who was at the height of his fame when the project began, has faded from public view. The woman’s study, even if finally published, will interest few people.
Tutor: So, what has this got to do with top achievers? Amanda: Well, top achievers are almost always free of the compulsion to be perfect. They don’t think of their mistakes as failures. Instead, they learn from them, so they can do better next time.
Tutor: Hmm ... well, would you call them competitive? Jake: High performers focus more on bettering their own previous efforts than on beating competitors. In fact, I, or we, came to the conclusion that worrying too much about a competitor’s abilities – and possible superiority – can be self-defeating.
Amanda: Yes, and we found that top achievers tend to be team players, rather than loners. They recognize that groups can solve certain complicated problems better than individuals and are eager to let other people do part of the work.
Jake: Yes. Loners, who are often over-concerned about rivals, can’t delegate important work or decision-making. Their performance is limited because they must do everything themselves.
Tutor: Well, it looks as if you two have done a thorough job, and learnt something into the bargain, too. Now, there are just a couple of points I’d like to clarify with you ...
That is the end of Section three. You now have half a minute to check your answers. (thirty-second pause)
Now turn to Section four. (four-second pause)
≤123 SECTION 4
You will hear a talk on Seasonal Affective Disorder. First, you have some time to look at questions 31–40. (fifteen-second pause)
Now listen carefully and answer questions 31–40. 206 Pathway to IELTS 1
In the past few years, a new condition has been identified and given a name – SAD, short for Seasonal Affective Disorder. This is now recognized as a distinct kind of clinical depression, where people become depressed at the onset of winter, accompanied by a craving for sweet things, causing weight gain. Each spring and summer would then bring on almost maniacal highs, and feelings of boundless energy and happiness.
Experiments to combat this depression showed that
increased exposure to bright light in humans could suppress their production of a darkness-related hormone called melatonin. The light needed to induce this change was about 2,000 lux, or about four times brighter than ordinary household lighting.
It was then calculated that if bright light could suppress melatonin secretion, then it might have other effects on the brain, including the reversal of symptoms of depression. While melatonin’s precise role in SAD has not been pinned down, the theory led to effective treatment. Not surprisingly, SAD affects more people where winter
nights are longer and days shorter. In the UK, an estimated half a million adults develop full-blown SAD in winter, and twice this number suffer the milder condition called subsyndromal SAD. About 80% of sufferers improve when given light therapy, and improvement usually comes within two to four days. Scientists are still unsure why winter depression happens, but more than a decade of research has turned up some surprising findings. Nearly 80% of SAD victims are women. Researchers are uncertain why this is so. SAD can affect people at any age, but typically it begins around the age of 20 and becomes less common between 40 and 50. SAD is comparatively rare in children and adolescents, but so far researchers have been unable to come up with a logical reason for this. As many as half of SAD sufferers have at least one family member with depressive illness, suggesting that the depression has a genetic component. Some patients experience shifts in their body clocks when
they’re depressed in winter. They are ‘morning people’ at one time of the year, and become ‘evening people’ at another. What is the underlying difference between SAD sufferers and others? A clue can be found in carbohydrate craving, a common symptom. People often become obsessed with chocolate, for example. Carbohydrates alter brain chemistry by increasing the level of a soothing chemical called serotonin, a neurotransmitter that carries signals between brain cells. SAD sufferers crave carbohydrates because they may need serotonin to lift their mood. This craving can be intense – in fact, an addiction. It may be that the serotonin system of the brain has
problems regulating itself during the winter. Some SAD sufferers respond well to the drug Prozac, thought to influence the brain’s serotonin-using system. Other brain chemicals and hormones probably play a role
in winter depression. Another neurotransmitter, dopamine, for example, may be inadequate in certain cases. Researchers hope to uncover clues to SAD’s secret by probing similarities between SAD and hibernation. Though no valid link between the two has been established, some SAD patients say they
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