Psychologists and psychiatrists say love tends to make humans helpless. Researchers claim that if you are in love, you will want to be with the loved one all the time. You will also think of your lover almost constantly and you will feel intense pleasure and happiness. Besides, you will feel omnipotent and capable of doing almost anything. Finally, they say that you will exaggerate your lover’s good points and minimise his or her bad points –if you can see any.

There is a certain amount of biochemistry at work, too. Some psychiatrists believe that a substance called phenylethylamine is produced in the brain when people are in love, and it gives them that feeling of hyperactivity. Others say that it is possible to fall in love more than once and even be in love with more than one person at the same time.

Romantic love is an enchanting experience, say three marriage therapists from New York. In their book, Mating, they say that love comes in a wide variety of forms and it acts on people in many different ways. The authors say the love experience is quite similar psychologically to being in a high risk situation, such as skydiving or riding in a motorcycle race. “Many people are so happy in that state of excitement that they constantly look for new partners with whom to fall in love”, they said. “They are, in fact, in love with love itself.”

Is it possible to stay in love for a lifetime? Evelyn and Peter Walster, a husband-and-wife research team, say love lasts 18 months to three years. The authors of Mating, however, say it is possible for love to grow deeper and more fervent as time goes by. Maybe the time of Romeos and Juliets has not ended yet and romantic love is here to stay.

PART ONE: READING COMPREHENSION

1. Answer the following questions according to the information in the text.

1. What are the effects that phenylethylamine produces in people?

2. What other two experiences is love compared to in the text?

3. Who wrote the book Mating?

4. Which of the following sentences (a, b or c) summarises the text best?

a) Psychiatrists and psychologists believe that romantic love is caused by a substance called phenylethylamine that we produce when we meet someone we like and that makes us exaggerate things.

b) It is very difficult to find the ideal partner because we tend not to see the bad points in the people we like and because we produce too much phenylethylamine when we are in love.

c) Love is experienced differently by everybody invading our lives and emotions, but most people who are in love do not see things objectively and feel hyperactive, excited and very happy.

  PART TWO: WRITING
Choose ONE. Write about either 1 or 2.

Option A: 1. Imagine your ideal boyfriend or girlfriend. What is she or he like? Write down a description of this ideal partner.

Option B: Your best friend is going out with someone you don’t like at all and you want him/her to end that relationship. However, your friend is madly in love with that person. Imagine a conversation with your friend in which you are trying to give him/her some advice about that relationship.

3. Vocabulary

Explain next words in English, write the phonetics and also an example: to claim, to tend, research.