Alcohol Survey

1. Introduction

I like alcohol very much. How about you? What do you think about drinking? How many times do you drink per week? Should the drinking age be lowered to 18? Nowadays, alcohol causes many problems such as violence, traffic accidents and sexual assaults, especially, among young people. In “The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) Report” the author says that “nearly 70 percent of underage persons who drank any alcohol in the past month had at least one occasion in that period when they consumed five or more drinks” (2003, p.3). It shows that many minors can drink even though it’s illegal. Therefore, many people argue about legal drinking age. We should consider whether changing the legal drinking age to 18 is right or not.


2. Purpose

Our group, EAP1-A, decided to find out how drinkers feel about legal drinking age in Carbondale. I wanted to know the relationship between gender and when people start drinking. Also, I wanted to know the relationship between gender and how people feel about alcohol. Moreover, I wanted to know the relationship between gender and thinking about legal drinking age.


3. Hypotheses

I had three hypotheses about drinking. First, I believed that males would say they started drinking earlier than females. Next, I believed that males didn’t care about drinking more than females. Third, I believed that males were more likely to agree to changing the legal drinking age to 18 than females.


4. Methods and Procedures

Our group was supposed to ask thirty-three males and thirty-three females at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. However, we only asked twenty-five males and twenty-four females. Almost all were students, probably. We prepared a survey that had nine questions, and it included a subjective question.


5. Data + Chart

http://eap1.blogspot.com/2008/02/practice-survey-results_27.html/


6. Results

Actually, females said they began to drink earlier than males. 61% females started drinking before 19 years old, and 48% males started drinking before that age. 66.3% people who are eighteen to twenty years old already started to drink. 70% people who are more than twenty years old disagreed that drinking age should be lowered.

http://eap1.blogspot.com/2008/02/practice-survey-results_27.html/

7. Conclusion and Discussion

I believed that males started to drink earlier than females. However, it was not true, because our survey showed that females began to drink earlier than males. And most people disagreed with changing the drinking age to lower, even young people, even though they already began to drink. It might mean they reason that drinking causes many problems. Moreover, about 15% people said that too much drinking was a problem in Carbondale. It is more than I thought. I’m interested in this survey, and I wonder that what kinds of facts could affect them.


8. Reference

Alcohol Use by Persons Under the Legal Drinking Age of 21. (2003, May 9). The NHSDA Report. Retrieved February 14, 2008, from http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/2k3/UndergeDrinking.htm/


9. Appendix

Copy of Survey

http://eap1.blogspot.com/2008/02/practice-survey-results.html/

Legal Drinking Age

When I was young, I thought alcohol was a very good friend, because it was always together with me, and it always heard my stories; I loved that so much. However, my love with it didn’t last a long time. I had been making many problems with it, until I found out that it isn’t only my good friend, but also a bad apple. It doesn’t like to lose, and it reveals its true character if I am absent-minded.

I agree with the legal drinking age being 21. Alcohol causes many troubles, such as assaults and traffic accidents, and it is easier to happen to teenagers because they often lose self-control.

First of all, when drinking happens, violence happens. It is a very serious problem. Actually, it isn’t only underage people’s situation, but it occurs with underage people more than overage people. More than 500,000 college students have become victims of assaults by drunken students a year, according to the Center for College Health and Safety (Angelo, 2008). Alcohol abuse can make people violent, and minors are easier to change, because they are more sensitive and susceptible. It must be dangerous.

Secondly, It’s fatal to drive with alcohol. They can drive from when they are 16 years old in the U.S. About 1,900 minors die from traffic accidents with alcohol every year, and it’s one of the biggest reasons for minors’ deaths (Federal Trade Commission, n.d.). Young people are very confident, and it causes accidents when they drink. Unfortunately, alcohol affects their driving skill even though they are confident.

Opponents of keeping the legal drinking 21 say that it is easy for them to get alcohol and drink even though it’s illegal. However, this argument doesn’t become a reason for changing the legal age. I also drank when I was a teenager, and adults tried to control. How about them? They might have drunk when they were young. And I will stop minors from drinking. It’s very common. I am here because of those adults. It’s necessary, even though they still drink. To control minors is very important.

In conclusion, it is dangerous that minors drink. Alcohol is not bad; it depends on the person who drinks. We should prepare or develop a mind for drinking before drinking. We need to just enjoy it. Underage people can’t control alcohol, and it is easy for them to lose self control. It’s dangerous to themselves and others.

Angelo, J. (2004, June). The wasted years: college presidents say that changing the culture of drinking on campus has been their gravest challenge: Whether they are up to the task is another question altogether. Bnet. Retrieved Feb. 1, 2008, from http://www.findarticle.com/p/articles/mi_m0LSH/is_6_7/ai_n6054435/

Federal Trade Commission. (n.d.). Dangers of teen drinking. We don’t serve teens. Retrieved Feb. 6, 2008, from http://www.dontserveteens.gov/dangers/

The Stress

Nowadays, we are exposed to many kinds of stress. It has become a matter of grave concern because stress will cause disease, and this may result in death. So it’s important that we learn how to cope with stress. In order to deal with stress, I shall begin with causes of stress. There are many kinds of stress in life, but in my case, I can divide them generally into three parts. These are immediate causes, indirect causes and unconscious causes.

First of all, we most often feel stress because of immediate causes. An immediate cause is something which happens near you right now. For example, I have an exam tomorrow, so it becomes a stress for me. And I feel stress from learning English. I have been studying English here for six months, already. Now there are only four months left before I leave, but my English is still insufficient. It’s very stressful.

Secondly, we sometimes feel stress because of indirect causes. An indirect cause is something which will influence you in the near future. I will graduate from my university next year, and I should find a job quickly. Then, maybe I will marry someone. However, everything is uncertain right now. It is also very stressful when I think about that. I don’t know exactly how I can do all of these, and whether I will or not.

Finally, we are affected by unconscious causes. Maybe we don’t know whether it affects us or not, but I think it also is one of the causes. Let me see; I have very traditional old thinking, and it affects my mind. I worry about something wrong happening, I worry about that my parents are disappointed in me and I worry about if I am different from other people. Of course, I don’t always think about that, but maybe it makes me feel stress.

In conclusion, we are exposed to many kinds of stress, and there is no way to avoid the stress. So we should find another way, and cope with stress. We can have some good habits for coping with stress, and it will be good for our health. In the past, general Douglas MacArthur said that we should just enjoy something if we can not avoid it.