IV. Division of the text.

I. About the author.

Richard Gordon was born in 1921. He has been a ship's surgeon and an assistant editor of the British Medical Journal. He left medical practice in 1952 and started writing his “Doctor” series.

“Doctor in the House” is one of Gordon's twelve “Doctor” books and is noted for witty description of a medical student's years of professional training.

II. Summary.

To a medical student the final examinations are something like death: an unpleasant inevitability to be faced sooner or later, one's state after which is determined by care spent in preparing for the event.

An examination is nothing more than an investigation of a man's knowledge. Examinations touch off his fighting spirit; they are a straight contest between himself and the examiners, conducted on well-established rules for both, and he goes at them like a prizefighter.

There is rarely any frank cheating in medical examinations, but the candidates spend almost as much time over the technical details of the contest as they do learning general medicine from their textbooks.

The examination began with the written papers. Three hours were allowed for the paper. Some of students strode up for an extra answer book, others handed in their papers and left.

After examination the author walked down the stairs feeling as if he had just finished an eight-round fight. In the square outside the first person he recognized was Grimsdyke. Grimsdyke told him about his theory that examiners never read the papers, the night before the results come out the old don totters back from hall and chucks the lot down the staircase. This system has been working admirably for years without arousing any comment.

The unpopular oral examination was held a week after the papers. The written answers have certain remoteness about them, and mistakes and omissions, like those of life, can be made without the threat of immediate punishment. But the viva is judgement day. If the candidate loses his nerve on the exam he is finished: confusion breeds confusion and he will come to the end of his interrogation struggling like a cow in a bog.

After the exams, one of the porters would carry a list of candidates' numbers and call them out, one after the other. The candidate would step up closely to the Secretary, who would say simply «Pass» or «Failed».

The Secretary said that R. Gordon “Pass” the exams. Blindly like a man just hit by blackjack, he stumbled upstairs.

III. General definition.

1. The main ideaof the text is: to show how difficult to medical students pass their exams.

2. The expositionof the text is: the students spend almost as much time over the technical details of the contest as they do learning general medicine from their textbooks.

3. The setting of the abstract. There are many descriptive passages, it is exclusively local-colour context. The author selects a first-person narrative, when one character gives his own opinion about the final examinations at Medical University.

IV. Division of the text.

The abstract can be divided into three logical parts:

The first part is written examination. The examination began with the written papers. A single invigilator sat in his gown and hood on a raised platform to keep an eye open for flagrant cheating. He was helped by two or three uniformed porters who stood by the door and looked dispassionately down at the poor victims

The second part is Viva. The unpopular oral examination was held a week after the papers. The written answers have certain remoteness about them, and mistakes and omissions, like those of life, can be made without the threat of immediate punishment. But the viva is judgement day.

The third part is Wait. We arrived in the examination building to find the same candidates there, but they were a subdued, muttering crowd, like the supporters of a home team who had just been beaten in a cup tie.

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 1495