MEDICINE AND HEALTH

Names of Diseases

1. Illness

2. The flu ( influenza)

3. Measles

4. Pneumonia / inflammation of the lungs

5. Scarlet fever

6. Tuberculosis (TB)

7. Bronchitis

8. Cancer

9. Chicken-pox

10. Diphtheria

11. Dysentery

12. Mumps

13. Measles

14. Rheumatism

15. Small-pox

16. Typhoid fever

17. Typhus

18. Cholera

19. Indigestion

20. Insomnia=sleeplessness

21. Constipation

22. Gastritis

23. Jaundice

24. Ulcer

25. Diarrhea=diarrhoea

26. Quinsy=tonsillitis

Bodily Defects

1. Bad /poor (good) eyesight

2. Long- /far-sighted

3. Short- /near-sighted

4. Blind

5. Deaf

6. Dumb

7. Deaf and dumb

8. Lame

9. Crossed-eyed

10. To squint

11. Cripple

12. To limp

13. To go / to walk on crutches

14. Hunchback

15. Stammer

16. To stammer

17. stamerer

Read the text and do the tasks after it.

MEDICINE AND HEALTH

`Medicines are not meant to live on`, the English proverb says. That is true and I can add that good health is better than the best medicine. And if your health is good, you are always in a good mood. You have `A sound mind in a sound body`, as the old Latin saying goes. Taking medicines is an unpleasant thing, of course, and if you want to avoid it, you should go in for sports and keep yourself fit.

But if something is wrong with our health and we are rather run down, we must consult a doctor and have a thorough examination. He will ask us to strip to the waist, listen to our heart and chest, feel the pulse, take the temperature and measure our blood pressure. But if the illness is serious or an operation is a big one, he will advise us to get a specialist in a hospital where they have all the necessary equipment. If our teeth need attention, filling, or if we need false teeth (dentures), then we have to go to the dentist. If our eyes need attention, we go to the oculist who will test our sight to see whether we are suffering from short-sight or long-sight and will write out a prescription for glasses.

The common illnesses are: cough, cold, influenza, sore throat. Children often get measles, mumps, scarlet fever and whooping-cough. Often people suffer from indigestion, rheumatism, hear troubles and blood-pressure. Some diseases are infectious and contagious, and great care must be taken by people who have these illnesses so that they don`t pass them on to other people. You may also have toothache, earache, headache, stomachache. Then you may get a bum, a scald, blood-poisoning or break a bone. Some of the most common things used to prevent or cure illnesses are: medicines, pills, powders, ointment, sleeping-draughts, injections, bandages, massage, antiseptics, tablets.

1. What do you think these proverbs mean: `Medicines are not meant to live on`, `A sound mind in a sound body`?

2. What is a usual procedure of a medical examination?

3. In what cases will you have to wear glasses?

4. What are the most common illnesses?

Choose the correct answer.

1. The pupil is part of the _______.

a) ear b) stomach c) eye d) hand

2. The sole is part of the __________.

a) hand b) foot c) eye d) ear

3. The calf is part of the _______.

a) leg b) arm c) chest d) head

4. The wrist is part of the __________.

a) hand b) foot c)eye d) ear

5. The iris is part of the __________.

a) hand b) foot c) eye d) ear

6. The heel is part of the __________.

a) hand b) foot c) eye d) breast

7. The palm is part of the _________.

a) hand b) foot c) ear d) breast

8. The thumb is part of the ________ .

a) hand b) foot c) head d) chest

9. The shin is part of the ________ .

a) arm b) leg c) head d) breast

10. He must be terribly strong! Look at his _______.

a) skin b) limbs c) muscles d) nerves

11. He stood with his hands on his ______ daring me to past him.

a) ankles b) knees c) shoulders d) hips

12. Every tooth in my upper ________ seemed to be aching.

a) chin b) cheek c) jaw d) forehead

13. His shoes were so old that his ______ were sticking out of them.

a) fingers b) thumbs c) tips d) toes

14. The blind man ran the _______ of his fingers over the box.

a) points b) edges c) tips d) ends

15. The _________ is the main air passage of the body.

a) intestine b) ear c) windpipe d) kidney

Fill in the blanks with the proper words from the table. Mind that there is one odd word.

Influenza is an ______________, infectious, contagious disease of the respiratory tract, especially the trachea, colloquially called ________________ . The ____________ of a simple attack include dry _____________, ____________ throat, nasal obstruction and discharge, and burning of the eyes; more complex cases are characterized by ___________, sudden onset of _____________, headache, ____________ of muscles and joints, and occasional gastrointestinal symptoms. In ______________ cases, symptoms fade and ____________ drops to normal in a few days; the ______________ of death increases if disease is accompanied or followed by viral pneumonia or bacterial pneumonia.

Since the 16^th century, at least 31 influenza pandemics, which are very widespread _____________, have been described. The most destructive epidemic of modern times, that of 1918, is estimated to have caused 20 million deaths; in the U.S. about 500,000 persons died, generally following the ____________ of bacterial pneumonia.

The different types of influenza virus appear in cycles; for instance, the variant appearing in the 1978-79 season was _______________ to the virus that was widespread during the early 1950s. Some ____________ exists that pandemics occurring 60 to 70 years apart are caused by the same form of virus. Based on this theory, public health officials expected in 1976 that the same virus that caused the 1918 pandemic would reappear. When this form of the organism was isolated, _________________ against it was prepared and mass inoculation was carried out in the U.S. No ______________, however, of that form of influenza occurred.

Read the text and answer the questions after it.

I remember going to the British Museum one day to read up the treatment for some slight ailment. I got down the book and read all I came to read; and then, in an unthinking moment, I idly turned the leaves and began to study diseases, generally. I forget which was the first, and before I had glanced half down the list of `premonitory symptoms` I was sure that I had got it.

I sat for a while frozen with horror, and then in despair I again turned over the pages. I came to typhoid fever – read the symptoms – discovered that I had typhoid fever – began to get interested in my case, and so started alphabetically.

Cholera I had, with severe complications; and diphtheria I seemed to have been born with. I looked through the twenty-six letters, and the only disease I had not got was housemaid`s knee.

I sat and thought what an interesting case I must be from a medical point of view. Students would have no need to `walk the hospitals` if they had me. I was a hospital in myself. All they need do would be to walk round me, and, after that, take their diploma.

Then I wondered how long I had to live. I tried to examine myself. I felt my pulse. I could not at first feel any pulse at all. Then, all of a sudden, it seemed to start off. I pulled out my watch and timed it. I made it a hundred and forty-seven to the minute. I tried to feel my heart. I could not feel my heart. It had stopped beating. I patted myself all over my front, from what I call my waist up to my head but I could not feel or hear anything. I tried to look at my tongue. I stuck it out as far as ever it would go, and I shut one eye and tried to examine it with the other. I could only see the tip, but I felt more certain than before that I had scarlet fever.

I had walked into the reading-room a happy, healthy man. I crawled out a miserable wreck.

I went to my medical man. He is an old chum of mine, and feels my pulse, and looks at my tongue, and talks about weather, all for nothing, when I fancy I`m ill. So I went straight up and saw him, and he said:

- Well, what`s the matter with you?

- I will not take up your time, dear boy, with telling what is the matter with me. Life is so short and you might pass away before I had finished. But I will tell you what is not the matter with me. Everything else, however, I have got.

And I told him how I came to discover it all. Then he opened me and looked down me, and took hold of my wrist, and then he hit me over the chest when I wasn`t expecting it – a cowardly thing to do, I call it. After that, he sat down and wrote out a prescription, and folded it up and gave it to me, and I put it in my pocket and went out. I din`t open it, I took it to the nearest chemist`s, and handed it in. The man read it, and then handed it back. He said he didn`t keep it. I said: `Aren`t you a chemist?` And he answered: `I am a chemist. If I was a cooperative stores and family hotel combined, I might be able to oblige you`. I read the prescription. It ran: `1 lb. Beefsteak with 1 pt. Bitter beer every six hours. 1 ten-mile walk every morning. 1 bed at 11 sharp every night. And don`t stuff up your head with things you don`t understand.` I followed the directions with the happy result that my life was preserved and is still going on.

1. What kind of person do you think the author is?

2. Why do you think the only disease he didn`t have was housemaid`s knee?

3. Does the situation described sound familiar to you?

Choose the correct variant.

1. She died after a long ________ .

a) disease b) failing c) illness d) sickness

2. The doctor had three ______ of nose-bleeding in the same day.

a) aspects b) cases c) examples d) illnesses

3. He still suffers from a rare tropical disease which he _______ while in the Congo.

a) contracted b) gained c) infected d) received

4. The teachers at the school went _____ with flue one after another.

a) down b) off c) out d) under

5. Malaria is _______ by the female mosquito.

a) broadcast b) sent c) transmitted d) transported

6. Mary is in bed with a ______ attack of flu.

a) hard b) heavy c) large d) severe

7. The school is half empty as a serious epidemic of measles has broken _____.

a) down b) in c) out d) up

8. He ______ a rare disease when he was working in the hospital.

a) caught b) infected c) suffered d) took

9. My headaches are usually brought _____ by worry.

a) in b) on c) up d) out

10. It was a minor illness and he soon got ______ it.

a) around b) on with c) over d) up to

11. I can never touch lobster because I am ______ to shellfish.

a) allergic b) infected c) sensible d) sensitive

12. The local medical officer reported a serious _______ of food-poisoning.

a) event b) incident c) outbreak d) state

13. The patient ______ his illness down to a virus infection.

a) laid b) placed c) put d) traced

14. You keep sneezing. You must have caught _______ .

a) a cold b) a cough c) a headache d) an illness.

15. He had a very bad cold and couldn`t stop ________ .

a) sneezing b) snoring c) spitting d) yawning

Fill the blanks with the proper word from the table. Mind that there is one odd

word.

Epidemics are outbreaks of contagious diseases _____________ an unusually large number of people or involving an extensive geographical area. Epidemics, which may be short-lived or last for years, are brought on by the widening reach of disease-causing organisms. These organisms can be _____________ by food or water, directly from one person to another through _____________ contact, or by the exchange of bodily secretions such as saliva, semen, or _____________. Insects, rodents, and other disease-carrying animals, are agents that may ______________ human populations with epidemic diseases. Among the diseases that have occurred in epidemic proportions throughout history are bubonic ____________, influenza, smallpox, typhoid ____________, tuberculosis, cholera, bacterial meningitis, and diphtheria. Occasionally, childhood __________ such as mumps and German measles become epidemics. In the past, when sanitary conditions were ___________ and diseases were little understood, epidemics occurred periodically and killed thousands of people. One of the largest epidemics ever recorded was the _______________ of bubonic plague that raged throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia from 1347 to 1350. This epidemic, known as the Black Death in Europe, is estimated to have killed one-third of the European population. An outbreak of influenza in 1918 killed more than 20 million people around the world. Such global epidemics are commonly called _______________.

Wars and foreign invasions have traditionally provided breeding grounds for epidemic disease. Prior to the 20^th century, every European was produced more ___________ from disease than from the use of weaponry. Colonists arriving in the western hemisphere carried disease-causing organisms to which they were immune but that devastated the populations of Native Americans who had no previous exposure to these organisms. Due to the spread of disease, the population of central Mexico ______________ by an estimated 90 percent in the first 50 years of Spanish domination. Epidemics can often be ___________ or controlled by immunization, improved sanitation, and by other public _____________ measures such as the use of pesticides to wipe out disease-carrying insects. During the 1960s and 1970s, the medical profession hoped that epidemic diseases were well on their way to ______________. Poliomyelitis, an __________________ viral disease of the central nervous system that had once been a scourge of young people in the United States, no longer appeared in significant numbers, and other diseases, including smallpox, tuberculosis, malaria, and cholera seemed almost neutralized.

But since the 1970s, 30 new disease-causing ______________, including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), Ebola hemorrhagic fever, and hepatitis C, have been identified, most of them emerging from new settlements in the rain forests of South America, Africa, and Asia. New antibiotic-resistant strains of influenza, tuberculosis, meningitis, cholera, and malaria have also appeared. Fortunately, disease _______________ and control establishments are now in place through most of the world and have repeatedly shown themselves capable of responding quickly and ____________ to sudden outbreaks of disease.

Read the text and do the tasks after it.

DOCTORS thought I`d never be able to do anything for myself but now I can`t wait to ride my bike…

In August 1996 Eddie Kidd was left in a coma as a motorbike stunt went dreadfully wrong and he suffered serious brain damage. Doctors didn`t know if he would live or die and few expected Eddie to be able to perform even the most basic tasks again. But now ha has learned to talk, he can move his legs and arms, and he is learning to write. Here he tells about his brave journey to recovery.

Although I`m in a wheelchair, I`ve still got the incredible determination that I had as a stunt rider. I know that I`m going to walk in a year. Every day my muscles get stronger and I can feel my body getting back to fitness. It may be very slow and frustrating, but it`s going to happen. I`ve never doubted that I`ll get out of my wheelchair. And when I can I`m going to treat the nurses to champagne at Stringfellows nightclub. That`s something I hardly dreamed of two-and-a-half years ago when I was in a coma and doctors feared I`d never be able to do anything for myself. In fact there was even doubt as to whether I`d ever regain consciousness. In August 1996 I lost control of a 500cc motorbike while launching it over a speeding car at a Hell`s Angels rally in Long Marston, Warwickshire. I crashed over a 20ft-high embankment, landing on my head. I knew the proper safety procedures were not in place but I had 20,000 people waiting to see the jump and I didn`t want to disappoint them. Of course, I never thought this was going to happen, but in the back of my mind I realized it wasn`t safe. After 20 years and 12,000 motor-bike jumps I`d never had a serious accident. During all that time I had acted as a stunt double for Harrison Ford and Pierce Brosnan in films and leapt 200ft ravines and soared over the Great Wall of China. But this time things went drastically wrong. I remember nothing about the accident. I landed on my head and the petrol tank hit my chin. I`d broken my collar bone, fractured my pelvis and damaged six vertebrae in my neck. But most serious was the brain damage caused by the severe head injury. I was rushed to Warwick Hospital, where I stayed in a coma for six weeks.

I have no recollection about being in the coma. But there must have been some subconscious recollection because there was a teddy bear in my room and I knew it was a present from Uri Geller, even though he gave it to me while I was still unconscious. When I first began to come around, things seemed very hazy. I didn`t really know where I was or what had happened to me. But I knew it was my daughter Candie`s 14^th birthday and I mouthed her name to my mum. At first everything was a blur. I remember feeling very, very tired. It`s not like waking up from a sleep, it takes a while to regain consciousness and bit by bit over a few days everything becomes clearer. Thankfully, my memory wasn`t affected and I recognized everyone around me. It must be terrifying to wake up and not remember who your family are and soul-destroying for the people close to you. But at that stage I was still too poorly to realize just how badly I`d been affected by the accident. My family and the doctors told me gently over the next few days what had happened, but I was in shock and it didn`t sink in for a while. I never felt angry, just deeply frustrated. For me, one of the main problems was the lack of dignity. I`d always been vain and wanted to look good, now I couldn`t do anything for myself. I couldn`t even brush my hair. My first instinct was to be deeply upset and then I thought, no, I won`t accept this. I am going to get myself out of this wheelchair, I am going to speak and write again. I`ve never doubted that will happen but sometimes I feel so frustrated that it is taking such a long time. I don`t ever feel sorry for myself. I won`t let myself – it takes energy that I could use for getting better. Once off the critical list, I was moved to Leamington Spa for rehabilitation. I couldn`t talk or use my limbs and was able to mouth only the occasional word. Everything had to be done for me. But I was determined I wouldn`t remain that way for long. I told myself I needed to get back on my feet and talk properly again, and nothing was going to stop me. I was going to work as hard as I possibly could to make it happen.

My recovery really began 15 months ago when I was transferred to a centre for rehabilitation in Felden, Hertfordshire, where I began the painful process of learning all the basis skills again. Every week I have an intensive program that includes physiotherapy for seven hours a week, occupational therapy every day which teaches me basic things like how to dress myself, and I have speech therapy twice a week. The doctors say I will get 90pc of my speech back. I can now make myself understood, but I do slur badly when I get tired. I can also write my signature, which may not seem much but I couldn`t even to sign a cheque before. I`ve had to learn to completely adjust my pace of life. I used to want immediate results and everything to be perfect but now I am so delighted when I make even a little progress. I never rest – I try to improve every day, even if it`s just doing a few finger exercises to make it easier to hold things. The only medication I`ve got is a drug to make sure I don`t have fits. The rest of my recovery is down to sheer willpower and painful practice of all the most basis skills that most of us take for granted. I can lift my arms and legs, and stand with a bit of help. I can even reach out and pick up a glass. Eating still takes concentration but I am getting better. But even though I`ve been lucky, in many ways I have still suffered heartbreak. A year after the accident my second wife Sarah (the mother of my five-year-old son Jack) walked out on our marriage. We met ten years ago at Stringfellows, where Sarah was working as a cocktail waitress. Sarah`s leaving me did set me back but she`s out of my life and I`m going to get on with it.

Motorbikes will still play a part in my life – the accident hasn`t put me off them. A few weeks ago I was able to ride pillion on the back of my brother-in-law Adam`s motorbike around Mum`s garden. It was only a two-minute ride but I`ve wanted to get back on a bike for ages. I see it as a real step forward in my progress. I don`t know when I`ll be back on a bike again. I`m taking things day by day but I do want to resume my career as a stunt coordinator. I miss working and I do want to go back to my job as soon as I can. I`ve got so much to do to get myself up and about again, but I get frustrated at not being able to work. I`m not angry or resentful about the accident. It happened and there is nothing I can do about it. Maybe it was God telling me to slow down. But in a year`s time I know I`ll be back walking.

Explain in English what is meant by:

1. Eddie was left in a coma.

2. Although I`m in a wheelchair, I`ve still got the incredible determination that I had as a stunt rider.

3. proper safety procedures

4. …things went drastically wrong

5. subconscious recollection

6. It must be terrifying

7. Rehabilitation

8. To take for granted

9. My second wife walked out our marriage.

10. The accident hasn`t put me off.

Answer the following questions:

1. What happened to Eddie?

2. Did he somehow expect this or was he completely unaware of what might happen?

3. Describe his memories of being in coma.

4. Speak about Eddie`s first steps on the way to a normal life.

5. How can you describe Sarah`s reaction? If you were Sarah, would you do the same?

6. Do you think Ediie will succeed in his `coming back`?

7. Do you know any other stories when people managed to overcome a certain illness or accident?

Read the text choosing the best word. Then retell the text.

Date: 2015-01-12; view: 5906