Anger room' gives China a way to reduce anger

What do you think the anger room is?

What do you do when you feel angry?

Young people in China are venting their frustration in an anger room. The room lets them smash up wine bottles and plastic models to release tension.

The name of the business is Smash. The room has bats and hammers. People can vent their rage on old broken televisions, clocks, and telephones.

The anger room was started by Jin Meng and her friends.  Now they are using 15,000 bottles a month.

Jin, 25, quit her job in public relations to start the room.  She has 600 customers a month. It's aimed at people aged 20 to 35.

She said: "A woman brought all her wedding photos here, and smashed them all. We welcome people to bring their own stuff here to vent their anger. Because we also see it as a place to say goodbye to a time or period in life.

"Of course we won't intervene people's privacy.  But we guess the woman just broke up with her lover before coming here. Every time when we come across this kind of situation it makes us believe that we've provided a safe place for people to let out angry feelings. And we are happy about that."

Jin said the room is not intended to promote violence. But to reduce people's stress in a city like Beijing where they are under more and more stress.

Qiu , a 16-year-old high school student, said: "It feels so good when I destroy those bottles and watch them explode."

He explained that strange new rules at school made  him feel angry.

 Zhuo  one of the managers, said people liked smashing televisions the most "because it feels really good when you smash the whole piece of the screen and the whole TV".

Liu , 32, said: "This place gives you the pleasure of breaking things. In other places, after you smash the item, you might find the stuff still there or you get fined. But it won't happen here.

"Here you only need to pay them money. If you have money, you can smash anything, smash a TV, smash a computer, smash wine bottles, smash furniture, smash plastic dolls, and the only thing you can't do is to smash someone else."

The room is inside an old factory. But Jin hopes to open a second branch in a shopping mall to allow people to stop for a quick smash when they shop.

Try to guess the meaning of the words in bold and match them with their closest meaning from the choices in the right. Some of the answers are very close and have similar meaning. The meaning of these words is how they are used in the reading. Some of these words have different meanings in the dictionary depending on how they are used.

 The answers are below the table.

A=1, B=8, C=4, D=2, E=7, F=3, G=6, H=5

Some example sentences using the new words or phrases from the meaning of how they are used in the reading to help you understand better.

1. He is yelling because he needs to vent his anger about what happened.

2. It is so frustrating to fail when you try hard.

3. There is tension between North and South Korea.

4. She went into a rage when she heard her boyfriend was cheating by seeing his old girlfriend.

5. We need to intervene between these 2 drunken men because if we don’t this tension will turn into a fight.

6. The first time you break up with someone it hurts the most.

7. My intention is to go to the next Olympic games.

8. Let’s promote our English camp to all the students in our school.

    

    

Some questions using the new words/phrases. Try to use the words/phrases in your answer.

1. Do you think this business (Smash) is a good intervention for someone really angry? Why or why not?

2. How would you promote a business like this in your country or city?

3. How do you vent when you feel anger?

4. What things make you feel frustrated?

5. How do you know when you have too much tension in your life? What changes do you have in your body for example?

6. Why do some people easily rage?

7. When you have broken up with someone how do you vent your sadness or anger?

8. What things do you intend to achieve in this next year?