C1 Advanced Reading Multiple Choice – test 7. Tekst popularnonaukowy o nostalgii – od XVII-wiecznej „choroby żołnierzy” do współczesnych badań psychologicznych. Pytania sprawdzają rozumienie wyników badań, porównań i rozróżnień wprowadzanych przez autora.
C1 Advanced Reading Multiple Choice – psychologia nostalgii
Tekst znajdziesz poniżej, a pytania pod nim. W egzaminie Reading and Use of English Part 5 to jeden długi tekst i 6 pytań wielokrotnego wyboru. Tutaj jest tak samo: 6 pytań w kolejności tekstu, a ostatnie często dotyczy całości. Najczęściej sprawdzają:
- opinię i nastawienie autora (attitude, purpose),
- znaczenie wyrażeń i porównań w kontekście,
- szczegóły ukryte w parafrazie – poprawna odpowiedź rzadko powtarza słowa z tekstu.
Test 7 z serii C1 Advanced Reading Multiple Choice. W tekstach naukowych uważaj na słowa ograniczające: often, rarely, some, not always – od nich zależy poprawna odpowiedź.
The ache for home
For most of its history, nostalgia was considered a disease. The term was coined in 1688 by a Swiss medical student, Johannes Hofer, to describe the condition of soldiers who had fallen ill, apparently from longing for home. Symptoms were said to include fever, fainting and loss of appetite, and the condition was thought to be potentially fatal. Well into the nineteenth century, army doctors treated it with leeches, threats and harsh punishments for anyone who continued to complain.
It is tempting to smile at such remedies, but the underlying assumption – that nostalgia is a weakness, a failure to adapt to present circumstances – has proved remarkably durable. Even today, to call someone nostalgic is rarely a compliment. It suggests a person who prefers a romanticised past to an uncomfortable present, and who has perhaps not quite grown up.
Over the past two decades, however, a group of psychologists has set out to challenge this view, and their findings have been surprising. In a series of experiments, participants who were asked to recall a nostalgic memory subsequently reported feeling more socially connected, more optimistic about the future and more confident that their lives had meaning. Rather than trapping people in the past, nostalgia appeared to equip them to face the present.
The explanation, according to researchers, lies in the content of nostalgic memories. They are rarely about achievements or possessions. Overwhelmingly, they involve other people: family meals, holidays with friends, moments of shared celebration. Recalling them reminds us that we are, or have been, loved, and this sense of belonging acts as a psychological resource we can draw on when we feel lonely or uncertain.
Interestingly, the studies suggest that nostalgia is often triggered by negative feelings. People report experiencing it most when they are lonely, bored or anxious, and on cold days. Some researchers have gone so far as to describe it as a kind of emotional thermostat, switching itself on when our mood drops in order to restore balance. One experiment found that participants in a chilly room were more likely to feel nostalgic, and that those who did so reported feeling physically warmer.
None of this means that nostalgia is always beneficial. There is a difference, psychologists point out, between personal nostalgia – fond memories of one’s own past – and a more collective version that idealises a supposed golden age of the nation or society. The latter has a darker history, and can be exploited by those who wish to convince people that the present is a betrayal of how things used to be.
Even personal nostalgia can become problematic when it tips over into brooding, when the past is recalled not to strengthen us but to emphasise how much has been lost. The key distinction, researchers suggest, is whether memories are used as a bridge or a refuge. Used well, they connect who we were with who we are. Used badly, they become a place to hide.
Hofer, then, was not entirely wrong. Nostalgia can make us unhappy, even ill. But in treating it as a disease to be cured, he and his successors overlooked the possibility that the ache for home might also be part of what keeps us going.