Have you ever felt pure fear, a fear that makes you act in a way you normally would

not?Consulta el diccionario online

That is panic. Panic is a great fear that makes otherwise normal people do abnormal things.

To hit the panic button means to panic suddenly. Another common expression is widespread panic. It describes an event that
causes panic among large numbers of people. For example, “The spread of disease caused widespread panic throughout
Europe during The Middle Ages.”

The origin of the word panic comes from the Greek word “panikos.” According to Greek myth, Pan was the god of flocks and
shepherds. Greek legend says that Pan was half human and half goat. He lived in the woods and in the fields. His angry voice
was so scary that it caused panic to anyone who was unlucky enough to be nearby.

According to one Greek myth, Pan fell in love with a beautiful nymph. A nymph is a spirit that takes the shape of young woman
and lives in the mountains, forests, meadows and water. Pan tried to capture her, but she ran away. The nymph hid in a river
taking the form of a reed, a thick, hollow grass that lives in the water.

The wind made a song as it blew across the hollow reeds.

Pan did not know which reed was the nymph. So, he took a handful and joined them together side-by-side and carried it with
him to hear the music it played.

Today, we call this instrument a pan flute.

Of course, this is just the Greek story. Pan flutes also have a long history in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.

Just like the pan flute, panic can be found everywhere.

Mental health experts treat people with panic disorders. The American Psychological Association defines a panic attack as “a
sudden surge of overwhelming, or extreme, fear that comes without warning and without any obvious reason.”

The word panic also describes economic or financial disasters.

The most infamous financial panic in the U.S. was the stock market crash of 1929. Some people on Wall Street where stocks
were traded were so panicked that they jumped from their office windows.

Panic is also a great literary tool.Curso de inglés en audio

Jack London was an American writer who wrote “The Sea Wolf.” He left school at age 14 to become a seaman. Published in
1904, “The Sea Wolf” has a panicked ship-wreck scene that is partly based on Mr. London’s experience as a sailor in the Pacific
Ocean.

Two ships crash together in the ocean. Women passengers scream with panic as the ship goes down into the freezing ocean
waves. As one man finds himself adrift alone in the sea, another type of panic takes hold of him.

“I was alone. I could hear no calls or cries--only the sound of the waves, made weirdly hollow and reverberant by the fog. A
panic in a crowd, which partakes of a sort of community of interest, is not so terrible as a panic when one is by oneself; and
such a panic I now suffered. … I confess that a madness seized me, that I shrieked aloud as the women had shrieked, and beat
the water with my numb hands.”

Panic is a powerful tool in myth or literature but not so much in real life. So, next time you feel extreme fear taking hold of
you, causing you to lose all reason, remember to remain calm. And don’t panic.

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Some unusual words describe how a person spends his or her time. For example, someone who likes to spend a lot of time
sitting or lying down while watching television is sometimes called a couch potato. A couch is a piece of furniture that people
sit on while watching television.Consulta el diccionario online
Robert Armstrong, an artist from California, developed the term couch potato in 1976. Several years later, he listed the term
as a trademark with the United States government. Mister Armstrong also helped write a funny book about life as a full-time
television watcher. It is called the “Official Couch Potato Handbook.”

Couch potatoes enjoy watching television just as mouse potatoes enjoy working on computers. A computer mouse is the
device that moves the pointer, or cursor, on a computer screen. The description of mouse potato became popular in nineteen-
ninety-three. American writer Alice Kahn is said to have invented the term to describe young people who spend a lot of time
using computers.

Too much time inside the house using a computer or watching television can cause someone to get cabin fever. A cabin is a
simple house usually built far away from the city. People go to a cabin to relax and enjoy quiet time.

Cabin fever is not really a disease. However, people can experience boredom and restlessness if they spend too much time
inside their homes. This is especially true during the winter when it is too cold or snowy to do things outside. Often children
get cabin fever if they cannot go outside to play. So do their parents. This happens when there is so much snow that schools
and even offices and stores are closed.Curso de inglés en audio

Some people enjoy spending a lot of time in their homes to make them nice places to live. This is called nesting or cocooning.

Birds build nests out of sticks to hold their eggs and baby birds. Some insects build cocoons around themselves for protection
while they grow and change. Nests and cocoons provide security for wildlife. So people like the idea of nests and cocoons, too.

The terms cocooning and nesting became popular more than twenty years ago. They describe people buying their first homes
and filling them with many things. These people then had children.

Now these children are grown and have left the nest. They are in college. Or they are married and starting families of their
own far away. Now these parents are living alone without children in their empty nest. They have become empty nesters.