Speech exercises

Ex. 35. Retell in narrative form.

Doctor sally

Lottie, a fashionable young lady, had always been ill-tempered, but that morning when she came into the sitting-room and found there a charming young woman, she made herself particularly unpleasant to the visitor, and giving her a nasty look started with:

"And who may this be?"

"I'm a doctor," said Sally.

"You? A doctor?"

"Can you read?" asked Sally with annoyance.

"Of course I can read."

"Then read this," said Sally and handed her card to Lottie.

"Doctor Sally Smith," Lott'ie read. "Well, I suppose it's all right. Still it looks strange to me. And let me tell you ..."

"Quiet, please," said Sally. "I want to make an examination," and she became busy with her stethoscope. "Take off your dressing gown."

"Eh? Oh, all right."

"Take a deep breath... The lungs appear to be good," said Sally. "Well, the heart seems all right, too. Now for the reflexes. Cross your legs... Nothing the matter with them. All right, that's all."

"Examination over?"

"Yes."

Lottie became interested. "What's wrong with me?"

"Nothing much. You need a rest."

"Aren't you going to look at my tongue?"

"I can tell, without looking at it, that that needs a rest too. What you want is a few weeks in a nice, quiet sanatorium."

"You're going to send me to a sanatorium?"

"Well, I'm advising that you should go. You need a place where there are cold baths and plain food, and no cocktails and cigarettes."

(after "Doctor Sally" by P.O. Wodehouse)

Ex. 36. Answer the following questions using the active vocabulary. Sum up your answers.

1. Hospitals

1. What are the oldest hospitals in town? 2. How do the new hos­pitals differ from the old ones? 3. What does the inside of a hospital look like? 4. What is a ward? 5. How many hospital-beds are there usu­ally in a ward? 6. How does the post-operation ward differ from an or­dinary one? 7. Why are operations made in the operation theatre?

2. In Hospital

1. What cases are treated in hospitals? 2. What case would need operative treatment? 3. How long are patients kept in hospital after an operation? 4. Why aren't patients allowed to leave hospital if they are still running temperatures? 5. What kind of medicine are they given to take off the pain? 6. When is a patient allowed to leave hospital?

3. Visiting a Friend In Hospital

1. Why are there special days and hours set for visitors? 2. In what cases are visitors allowed to come daily? 3. Why are no visitors allowed when there is an influenza epidemic in town? 4. What would you bring a sick friend to liven up his stay in hospital? 5. How will you try to take his mind off the illness? 6. What will you wish him when leaving?

4. Laid up With the Flu*

A. 1. In what cases do you send for a doctor? 2. What kind of ex­amination does a doctor give you? Why does he feel your pulse? ask you to show him your tongue? inquire about the temperature and whether you have any complaints? 3. In what way will your answers help him? 4 What will he do if the illness demands daily treatment and atten­tion'? 5 What will he do if he finds that you're suffering from a bad cold (pneumonia, etc.)? 6. What is the best cure for a bad cold? 7. How long will you be on sick-leave^** if you have a cold? 8. Why is it important that you should follow the doctor's instructions?

В. 1. What do you feel when you're falling ill? 2. Can you go on with your usual work? 3. Why had you better keep to your bed? 4. How will the illness develop if you disobey the doctor's orders? 5. What kind of a patient are you: the quiet or the noisy type? Do you complain all the time? How do you stand pain? Do you make a fuss about little things? Do you lose your temper easily? 6. What are the signs that you're getting well again?

Ex. 37. Read the passage, answer the questions, using the vocabulary of the lesson and write it up in about one third of the original length.

'There are one or two elementary rules to be followed,' remarked Dr. Budd turning to Doyle. 'The most obvious is that you must never let the patients see that you want them. Never make the mistake of being polite to them. There's no better advertisement than a patient whose feelings have been hurt. I quarrelled with one man about his liver^****, and it ended by my throwing him down the stairs. What was the result? Ни talked so much about it that the whole village from which he came, sick and well, rushed to see me. It's human nature, my boy, and you can't change it. You make yourself cheap and you become cheap. You put a high price on yourself and they take you at that price. Suppose I set up in Harley Street tomorrow, and made it all nice and easy, with hours from ten to three, do you think I should get a patient? Never. How would I work it? I should let it be known that I only saw patients from midnight until two in the morning, and that bald-head­ed^**** people must pay double. That would make people talk, and in four months the street would be blocked all night. That's my principle here. I often come in the morning and send them all about their busi­ness, tell them I'm going off to the country for a day. I lose forty pounds, and it's worth four hundred as an advertisement.'

'But I understand that the consultations are free?'

'So they are, but they have to pay for the medicine. But mind you, Doyle, don't make any mistake about this! All this would go for no­thing if you had not something real behind — I cure them. That's the point. I take cases that others have given up, and I cure them. All the rest is to bring them here. But once here I keep them because I know the treat ment and the cure. It would all be useless but for that.'

(after "Conan Doyle" by Hesketh Pearson)