Chinese philosophy

1. If someone told you that they had one of the following medical prob­lems, what would you advise them to do to help them get better quickly?

a) a headache d) diarrhea g) insomnia

b) a sore throat e) a burn on the finger h) sore muscles after exercise

c) a cough f) a nosebleed

2. Discuss in groups what helps people to keep healthy. Write down your Ideas in the form of rules of living a healthy life. Find some pictures, sayings and proverbs to make your ideas brighter. Design your ideas as an information leaflet or as a short TV programme and present your project.

SUPPLEMENT

Text I

1. Get some more information.

CHILDHOOD DISEASES

Measles, also known as rubella, is a very contagious respiratory infection that causes cold symptoms, fever and a characteristic rash. It is caused by the measles virus, which usually spreads from person to person through coughs and sneezes, and through contact with used tissues, shared drinking glasses, dirty hands that touched a runny nose, or other contaminated surfaces. Once the vi­rus enters the body, the infection spreads throughout the respiratory tract to the skin and to other body organs. A person with measles is contagious (can infect others) from one to two days before any symptoms begin (or three to five days before the rash), to four days after the rash appears. Some doctors prescribe high doses of vitamin A to patients hospitalized with measles and its complica­tions, especially children from 6 months to 2 years.

Scarlet fever was once a very serious childhood disease, but now is easily treatable. The incubation period is short, generally 1—2 days. Illness typically be­gins with a fever and sore throat. It may be accompanied by chills, vomiting, ab­dominal pain and malaise. The streptococcal bacteria produce a toxin that causes a rash that appears in one or two days after the onset of illness. The rash usually first appears on the neck and chest and then spreads over the body. It is described as "sandpapery" in quality. The texture of the rash is more important than the appearance in confirming the diagnosis. The rash can last for over a week. As the rash fades, peeling may occur around the finger tips, toes, and groin area. Bacte­ria are spread by direct contact with infected person or by droplets exhaled by an infected person. Avoid contact with infected person.

Chickenpox is an infection that causes an itchy, blistering rash and is very contagious. A person with chickenpox can spread the disease to someone else from one day before the rash appears until all chickenpox blisters have crusted over Once someone has had a chickenpox infection, he or she almost always develops a lifelong immunity, meaning that person usually does not get chickenpox a second time. The exception is a child who is infected at a very young age. Chickenpox, in most cases, goes away by itself. Oatmeal baths and calamine lotion can help to reduce the itchiness. Trim fingernails to decrease the risk of infection from scratching. Children infected with chickenpox will develop a severe lung infection, an infection of the brain or a problem with the liver. Dangerous skin infections also can occur. Some people are at high risk of serious complications from chickenpox, including people who have problems with their immune system, certain pregnant women and premature infants.

Whooping cough. Pertussis is a highly contagious bacterial disease that af­fects the respiratory system. It produces spasms of coughing that may end in a high-pitched, deep inspiration (the "whoop"). The infection is spread through the air by droplets from the breath of an infected person. Vaccine helps to protect child­ren against this disease. Vaccination starts in infancy. The bacteria invade the nose and throat, the breathing tube (trachea) and the lungs. The infection usually lasts 6 weeks. It starts with symptoms similar to the common cold, and progresses to spasms of coughing after 10 to 12 days. The child may momentarily lose con­sciousness at the end of a coughing spell. During this stage, there is heavy mucus production. Coughing spells may lead to vomiting. Recovery begins about four weeks after symptoms begin and may take several weeks.

2. Answer the questions.

a) What infectious diseases do you know?

b) What helps to prevent complications?

c) What must we do to prevent the spread of infection?

d) What is the first symptom of many infectious diseases?

e) How can the disease pass from one person to another?

f) Vaccine helps to protect children against infectious diseases, doesn't it?

3. Are the statements true or false? Correct the false ones.

a) To have a healthy lifestyle means to take vitamins regularly.

b) A healthy lifestyle helps you keep fit.

c) You needn't pay at the private hospital.

d) When somebody has an accident he goes to the specialist.

e) You can buy pills, tablets and other medicine at the hospital. 0 You should tell a doctor about the symptoms of your disease.

g) To be on a diet is dangerous for your health.

h) If you are sick, don't consult a doctor.

i) Children are usually afraid of injections.

Text 2

1. Read and translate the text.

ADULT DISEASES

Blood pressure has two components: systolic pressure, the higher number, represents the pressure that the heart must generate to pump blood to the rest of the body. Diastolic pressure, the lower number, refers to the pressure in the blood vessels between heartbeats. Usually systolic pressure increases as we age. However after age 60, diastolic pressure usually begins to decline because of stiffening of the body's blood vessels. Blood pressure is measured in millimeters of mercury (mmHg). High blood pressure, or hypertension, is defined as systolic blood pressure of 140 mmHg or greater, or diastolic blood pressure of 90 mmHg or greater. This is because the risk of various health complications is increased when the blood-pressure levels are higher than this.

High blood pressure can cause damage to many organs, including the brain, heart and kidneys, as well as arteries throughout the body. If you have high blood pressure that has not been diagnosed, or that is not being treated adequately, you are at greater risk of having a heart attack, stroke, kidney failure and blindness. Symp­toms of high blood pressure can cause symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, fatigue and ringing in the ears. However, it often causes no symptoms.

You should avoid smoking or drinking caffeine (coffee, tea, cola, soft drinks) for at least 30 minutes before you have your blood pressure taken, and you should be seated for at least five minutes before. If your blood pressure is high, your doctor should examine your eyes, heart and nervous system to look for brain damage. He or she also should perform various tests to see if the hypertension has caused organ damage, including blood tests to check kidney function, and an electrocardiogram (ECG) to look for thickening of the heart muscle, reduced blood flow to your heart or irregular heart rhythms. Your doctor will diagnose you with hypertension if your blood pressure measures more than 140/90 mmHg on three consecutive visits over several months.

Adults generally should have their blood pressure measured at least every few years. You should schedule regular appointments with your doctor for blood pres­sure monitoring and for advice about modifying your lifestyle to prevent problems in the future.

Snoring is caused by a narrowing or partial blockage of your airways at the back of the mouth and upper throat. This obstruction results in increased air turbu­lence when breathing in, causing the soft tissues in your throat to vibrate. The end result is a noisy snore that can disrupt the sleep of your bed partner. This narrowing of the airways is typically caused by the soft palate, tongue, and throat relaxing while you sleep, but allergies or sinus problems can also contribute to a narrowing of the airways, as being overweight and having extra soft tissue around your upper airways. Sleep apnea is a serious sleep disorder, and its hallmark is loud, frequent snoring linked to intermittent brief pauses in breathing while sleeping.

Snoring also increases the risk of developing diabetes and heart disease. One study found that women who snored regularly were twice as likely as those who did not snore to develop diabetes, even if they were not overweight — another risk factor for diabetes. Other studies suggest persistent snoring may raise the lifetime risk of developing high blood pressure, heart failure and stroke.

Health professionals define "overweight" as an excess amount of body weight that includes muscle, bone, fat and water. Measuring the exact amount of a person I body fat is not easy. Obesity occurs when a person consumes more calories than hi or she burns. What causes this imbalance between calories in and calories out may differ from one person to another. Genetic, environmental, psychological and other factors may all play a part.

Several serious medical conditions have been linked to obesity, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke. Obesity is also linked to higher rates of certain types of cancer. Obese men are more likely than non-obese men to die from cancer of the colon, rectum or prostate. Obese women are more likely than non-obese women to die from cancer of the gallbladder, breast, uterus, cervix or ovaries.

The method of treatment depends on your level of obesity, overall health con­dition and motivation to lose weight. Treatment may include a combination of diet, exercise, behavior modification and sometimes weight-loss drugs. In some cases of severe obesity, gastrointestinal surgery may be recommended. In recent years, body mass index (BMI) has become the medical standard used to measure over­weight and obesity. BMI uses a mathematical formula based on a person's height and weight. BMI equals weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared (BMI = kg/m²). Although the BMI ranges are not exact ranges of healthy and un­healthy weight, they are useful guidelines. A BMI of 25 to 29.9 indicates a person is overweight. A person with a BMI of 30 or higher is considered obese.

2. Are the statements true or false? Correct the false ones.

• Blood pressure is measured in millimeters of mercury (mmHg).
• Snoring decreases the risk of developing diabetes and heart disease.
• Professionals define "overweight" as an excess amount of body weight that includes muscle, bone, fat, and water.
• Diastolic pressure is the higher number.
• The end result is a noisy snore that can disrupt the sleep of your bed partner.
• If you have high blood pressure you are at greater risk of having a heart attack, stroke, kidney failure and blindness.
• If your blood pressure is high, your doctor should examine your eyes, heart and nervous system to look for brain damage.

3. Explain each item in the context of the text.

ü Blood pressure.

ü Diastolic pressure.

ü Snoring.

ü Obesity.

ü Systolic pressure.

ü BMI.

4. Comment the English proverbs:

Ø Good health is above wealth.

Ø A sound mind in a sound body.

Ø He who has health has hope, and he who has hope has everything.

Ø The best of healers is good cheer. (Pindar)

Ø Perfect health, like perfect beauty, is a rare thing, and so, it seems, is perfect disease. (Peter Latham)

Chinese philosophy

Any attempt to survey an intellectual tradition which encompasses more than four thousand years would be a daunting task – for no commonalities can be assumed in attempting to introduce Asian thinking to Western readers. Until the first Jesuit incursions in the late sixteenth century, China had developed in virtual independence of the Indo-European cultural experience and China and the Western world remained in almost complete ignorance of one another.

The dramatic contrast between Chinese and Western modes of philosophic thinking may be illustrated by the fact that the tendency of European philosophers to seek out the being of things, the essential reality lying behind appearances, would meet with little sympathy among Chinese thinkers, whose principal interests lie in the establishment and cultivation of harmonious relationships within their social ambiance. Contrasted with Anglo-European philosophic traditions, the thinking of the Chinese is far more concrete, this-worldly and, above all, practical.

It generated traditional radial communities in which moral, aesthetic and spiritual values could remain relatively implicit and unarticulated.

The priority of logical reasoning in the West is paralleled in China by the prominence of less formal uses of analogical, parabolic and literary discourse. The Chinese are largely indifferent to abstract analyses that seek to maintain an objective perspective, and are decidedly anthropocentric in their motivations for the acquisition, organization and transmission of knowledge. The disinterest in dispassionate speculations upon the nature of things, and a passionate commitment to the goal of social harmony was dominant throughout most of Chinese history.

Harmonious interaction was finally more important to these thinkers than abstract issues of who had arrived at the ‘truth’. Perhaps the most obvious illustration of the way the Chinese handled their theoretical conflicts is to be found in mutual accommodation of the three emergent traditions of Chinese culture, Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism. Beginning in the Han dynasty (206 bc–ad 220), the diverse themes inherited from the competing ‘hundred schools’ of pre-imperial China were harmonized within Confucianism as it ascended to become the state ideology.

For a brief period, intellectual activity surrounding the May Fourth movement in 1919 seemed to be leading the Chinese into directions of Western philosophic interest. However, the Marxism that Mao Zedong sponsored in China was ‘a Western heresy with which to confront the West’. Mao’s Marxism quickly took on a typically ‘Chinese’ flavour, and China’s isolation from Western intellectual currents continued essentially unabated.

Date: 2014-12-21; view: 1207