难度：中低级★★★

A new study has found that 10 per cent of fathers suffer serious depression after the birth of their children. Lead researcher Dr James F. Paulson, assistant professor of paediatrics at America’s Eastern Virginia Medical School, said of post-natal depression: "It's viewed as a disorder of motherhood. It's not viewed by health professionals and the public as a problem in fathers." His team analyzed the findings of 43 different studies into new dads becoming depressed. These involved data from over 28,000 fathers from Australia, China, Great Britain and the USA. Dr Paulson found that American men were the most likely to experience depression. Over 14 per cent of U.S. dads got the post-baby blues compared with an international average of 8.2 per cent.

Dr Paulson said the results were interesting and that his statistics represent “a significant public health concern and something we need to pay more attention to.” He points to a number of reasons for post-natal depression in men. A big factor is depression in the mother. Up to a quarter of mothers experience some form of depression following childbirth. Another big reason is the pressure brought to a marriage after starting a family and how the mother and father help each other. Other reasons include a lack of sleep, financial stress and having a sick baby. Dr Paulson’s advice for new parents is: "Depression affects both parents and both parents should be on the lookout for it… Depression in one partner has a cascading effect throughout the entire family unit.”

课前热身：

1. DEPRESSION: Walk around the class and talk to other students about depression. Change partners often. Sit with your first partner(s) and share your findings.

2. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words from the article are most interesting and which are most boring.

Have a chat about the topics you liked. Change topics and partners frequently.

3. NEW BABY: What are the stressful and nice things for dads? Complete this table with your partner(s). Change partners and share what you wrote. Change and share again.

4. CURE: Students A strongly believe scientists will find a cure for depression one day; Students B strongly believe the opposite.  Change partners again and talk about your conversations.

5. DEPRESSION: What are the biggest factors? Rank these and share your rankings with your partner. The most depressing is at the top.  Change partners and share your rankings again.

6. CHILDBIRTH: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘childbirth’. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.

课后练习：

1. TRUE / FALSE: Read the headline. Guess if  a-h  below are true (T) or false (F).

2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article.

3. PHRASE MATCH:  (Sometimes more than one choice is possible.)

GAP FILL: Put the words into the gaps in the text.

DEPRESSION DISCUSSION

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

LANGUAGE – MULTIPLE CHOICE

A new study has found that 10 per cent of fathers (1) ____ serious depression after the birth of their children. Lead researcher Dr James F. Paulson, assistant professor of paediatrics  at America’s Eastern Virginia Medical School, (2) ____ of post-natal depression: "It's viewed as a (3) ____ of motherhood. It's not viewed by health professionals and the public as a problem in fathers." His team analyzed the        (4) ____ of 43 different studies (5) ____ new dads becoming depressed. These involved data from over 28,000 fathers from Australia, China, Great Britain and the USA. Dr Paulson found that American men were the most likely to experience depression. Over 14 per cent of U.S. dads got the post-baby (6) ____ compared with an international average of 8.2 per cent.

Dr Paulson said the results were (7) ____ and that his statistics represent “a significant public health concern and something we need to (8) ____ more attention to.” He points to a number of reasons for post-natal depression in men. A big factor is depression in the mother. Up to a quarter of mothers experience some form of depression (9) ____ childbirth. Another big reason is the pressure brought to a marriage after starting a family and how the mother and father help each other. Other reasons include a (10) ____ of sleep, financial stress and having a sick baby. Dr Paulson’s advice for new parents is: "Depression affects both parents and both parents should be on the (11) ____ for it… Depression in one partner has a cascading effect throughout the (12) ____ family unit.”

Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.

答案：

TRUE / FALSE:

SYNONYM MATCH:

PHRASE MATCH:

GAP FILL:

A new study has found that 10 per cent of fathers suffer serious depression after the birth of their children. Lead researcher Dr James F. Paulson, assistant professor of paediatrics at America’s Eastern Virginia Medical School, said of post-natal depression: "It's viewed as a disorder of motherhood. It's not viewed by health professionals and the public as a problem in fathers." His team analyzed the findings of 43 different studies into new dads becoming depressed. These involved data from over 28,000 fathers from Australia, China, Great Britain and the USA. Dr Paulson found that American men were the most likely to experience depression. Over 14 per cent of U.S. dads got the post-baby blues compared with an international average of 8.2 per cent.

Dr Paulson said the results were interesting and that his statistics represent “a significant public health concern and something we need to pay more attention to.” He points to a number of reasons for post-natal depression in men. A big factor is depression in the mother. Up to a quarter of mothers experience some form of depression following childbirth. Another big reason is the pressure brought to a marriage after starting a family and how the mother and father help each other. Other reasons include a lack of sleep, financial stress and having a sick baby. Dr Paulson’s advice for new parents is: "Depression affects both parents and both parents should be on the lookout for it… Depression in one partner has a cascading effect throughout the entire family unit.”

LANGUAGE WORK

英语口语教学