Rage Rooms – Elementary

General English

Rage rooms: can smashing stuff up really help to relieve anger and stress?

Level: ElementaryTime: 60 minFocus: Parts of Speech

TEXT:

📋 Overview

1Warmer

2Key Words

3Comprehension

4Key Language

5Discussion

6In Your Own Words

Article

HIGHLIGHT:

Health & Wellbeing

Rage rooms: can smashing stuff up really help to relieve anger and stress?

Venues promoting destruction as stress relief are appearing around the UK but experts – and our correspondent – are unsure

Nicola Davis29 November, 2025

1Do you find it hard to count to 10 when you're angry? A new idea offers a more hands-on activity. Rage rooms are opening across the UK. They allow people to smash old TVs, plates and furniture.

2Rage rooms started in Japan in 2008, but they are now global. Many rage rooms in the UK say that destruction can help relieve stress.

3Amelia Smewing is the owner of a rage room in south-east London. She started the business with her husband to help their son with PTSD.

4Rob Clark is a rage room director. His customers include younger people who want a unique experience, groups of women celebrating break-ups and people using the space to help with stress or mental health challenges.

5Lucy Bee started another UK rage room. She said people also just come for fun. At her rage room, the typical "rager" is female – "early 40s, woman, a couple of kids, good job," she said.

6Some experts have concerns.

7Dr Sophie Kjærvik works at the Norwegian Center for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies in Oslo. She wrote an article about the effects of different activities on anger. She explained rage rooms can have negative effects on users. They can make the feelings of anger increase.

8"We found that doing meditation and mindfulness and muscle relaxation activities are way more productive ways of dealing with anger."

9Prof Brad Bushman of Ohio State University wrote the article with Kjærvik. He also had concerns. He explained that when people are in rage rooms, "they're just practising how to behave more aggressively."

10Suzy Reading is a member of the British Psychological Society and author of the book How to be Selfish. She explained that there are many ways to express anger, like writing and breathing exercises. She said that rage rooms may help with stress, but they do not give people information about the causes of their anger.

11"If there isn't an understanding of what caused it, then we just go back into our home lives and our work lives and our communities, and nothing changes," she said.

GLOSSARY
PTSD: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, a mental health condition related to a very bad experience in the past

📋

Lesson Overview

About This Lesson

This article discusses rage rooms, places where people pay to safely break or damage items. It explains how rage rooms are marketed as a way to deal with stress or anger, and discusses both the pros and cons, with perspectives from business owners, psychologists and rage room users.

Level: Elementary (A2)
Skills: Reading, Speaking, Writing
Language Focus: Parts of speech (destroy/destruction, relieve/relief, relax/relaxation, behave/behaviour, understand/understanding, express/expression)
Time: 60 minutes
Activities: Warmer · Key words (multiple choice + fill-in) · Comprehension (True/False) · Key language: parts of speech · Discussion · In your own words

👈 The article is on the left. Use tabs to navigate. Choose a highlight colour and select text to mark in the article — you can use all three colours at once. Click ✕ to clear all highlights.

Warmer

People have many different ways of dealing with stress. Some are positive and some are negative. Click P (positive) or N (negative) for each activity. Then compare with a partner.

going for a walk

listening to music

eating junk food

talking to friends

sleeping all day

shopping online

Other:

Key Words

a. Choose the correct word or expression

Choose the correct word or expression to match each definition. Then find and highlight them in the article to read them in context.

1.to remove or reduce unpleasant feelings or pain

2.strong worries or fears

3.the act of damaging or breaking something so that you cannot use it anymore

4.an activity where you use your hands to experience something

5.the end of romantic relationships or friendships

6.to break something into many pieces, usually in a loud or angry way

7.new or difficult tasks or situations

8.in a way that is very angry or violent

9.very special or different, the only one of its kind

10.related to the whole world or many different countries

Answer Key (a):

c. relieve
b. concerns
a. destruction
b. hands-on
c. break-ups
a. smash
b. challenges
c. aggressively
a. unique
b. global

b. Complete the sentences

Complete the sentences with words from the previous activity.

1.Liza wanted to move to a new city, but she had lots of .

2.English is a(n) language – people speak it in many different places.

3.I'm excited for my coding class. I enjoy learning in a fun, way.

4.Reality shows often use physical , like races or sport competitions.

5.Rest and relaxation can help a bad headache or cold.

6.After the winter storm, there was a lot of in the city centre.

Answer Key (b):

concerns
global
hands-on
challenges
relieve
destruction

Comprehension Check

Decide if the statements are True or False based on the information in the article.

Japan was the first place in the world to have rage rooms.

Amelia Smewing and her husband started their rage room business to make money.

Lucy Bee says that most of her rage room customers are men in their 20s.

Dr Sophie Kjærvik explains that rage rooms can have many positive effects on people.

Kjærvik says that relaxing activities are a helpful way to deal with anger.

Suzy Reading says that rage rooms do not help people understand their anger.

Answer Key:

True (paragraph 2: "Rage rooms started in Japan in 2008")
False (paragraph 3: she started it to help their son with PTSD)
False (paragraph 5: the typical "rager" is female, early 40s)
False (paragraph 7: she says they can have negative effects)
True (paragraph 8: meditation and relaxation are "more productive")
True (paragraph 10–11: rage rooms don't give people information about the causes of their anger)

Key Language: Parts of Speech

a. Find the noun or verb form

Read the words in the table. Then scan the article and find these words in a different part of speech. Write the noun or verb form in the empty cell.

Noun	Verb
	destroy
relief
	relax
behaviour
	understand
expression

Answer Key (a):

destruction (noun) / destroy (verb)
relief (noun) / relieve (verb)
relaxation (noun) / relax (verb)
behaviour (noun) / behave (verb)
understanding (noun) / understand (verb)
expression (noun) / express (verb)

b. Complete the sentences

Complete the sentences with the correct forms of the verbs from the table above.

1.Dangerous weather, like hurricanes, can a city.

2.Yoga is a great way to feelings like stress or anger.

3.Eve had lots of rest and on her holiday in Austria.

4.Animal psychologists study the of cats and dogs.

5.I don't what you're saying. Can you repeat that, please?

6.Some people think it's difficult to their real feelings.

Answer Key (b):

destroy
relieve
relaxation
behaviour
understand
express

Discussion

Discuss these questions with a partner or in a group.

🤔

Are rage rooms popular in your country or culture? Why?

💬

Do you want to use a rage room to help with anger? Why?

In Your Own Words

a. Research stress-relieving activities

What types of stress-relieving activities are available in your community? Do you have rage rooms or relaxation centres? Are there other services for anger? Look online to find information. Prepare a pamphlet with information about two or more places. Include a short description of the place.

Place 1 – Name & Description

0 words

Place 2 – Name & Description

0 words

Place 3 – Name & Description (optional)

0 words

b. Share your ideas

Share your pamphlet with your class. Ask them which of the places in the pamphlet they like the most. Write notes about your classmates' opinions below.

Class Discussion Notes

0 words

c. Write your opinion

Do you think rage rooms are a good idea? Write 3–5 sentences giving your opinion. Use words from the lesson.

Your Opinion

0 words