The perfect Ameri-patient

... NEED DO ONLY ONE IMPORTANT THING: stay conscious long enough to sign the medical insurance forms. Ameri-doctor seems to work with greater skill and sense of Hypocratic vocation when he knows you carry Blue Cross, Blue Shield and Major Medical.

Comprehension

Exercise 1. Make up 5–7 multiple choice questions about the text to check comprehension.

Exercise 2. Sum up the main points of the text in your own words.

Language practice

Exercise 3.Find synonyms in the text for the words and phrases below, comment on their register and expressiveness. Think up appropriate contexts with them:

to rely, rest on sth. / to compete with / rich / peniless / having no idea about sth. / to humble oneself / alert and ready for action / to bungle / to enhance, increase / a severe and long examination.

Exercise 4.Identify the cultural information, things, specific idiom and topics that come through in the text and comment on them.

Exercise 5.Complete the following sentences by using the words below:

1. The idea behind the NHS is that the health … should be free for every person living in Britain. 2. If you’ve got something wrong with you the choice is to either do it on … or to go … 3. Today the NHS costs over £16 million … 4. The usual criticism … the NHS is that it is … and that the nurses and doctors are…

underpaid / to run / provision / understaffed / the NHS / private

Exercise 6.Choose and use:recipe,prescription,ticket,receipt.

1. The cookery section has some very clever … 2. I’ve had this condition for years, and had to renew my … many times now. 3. (At a gentlemen’s club) He left his coat and the attendant gave him a … 4. I lost my laundry … 5. He opened a Building Society account by putting in ten quid, and the clerk gave him a … 6. (In a shop) I don’t know how much it costs – there is no … on the dress.

Exercise 7. Phrasal Verbs Practice.

Write out all the sentences with phrasal verbs and their derivatives, look them up in a recent dictionary and write out more sentences with them. Translate the sentences in writing, possibly with a number of options for different speech situations.

Exercise 8.What other language from the text would you like to select for intensive study and why?

Exercise 9.Where is the odd-one-out? Since there may be different options, try to explain your choice as you go on:

1. social worker, social security, social services, social function, social work;

2. doctor, GP, doc, PhD, surgeon, medic, paramedic, MD;

3. ward, surgery, clinic, infirmary, nursery, mortuary;

4. medic, paramedic, matron, doc, vet, sis, nurse, shrink, quack;

5. Blue Shield, Prudential, State Farm, Blue Cross, HMO;

6. Podiatrist, surgeon, analyst, sergeant, resident.

Exercise 10. Idioms Practice

Look up idioms and metaphoric expressions with the words HAND, FIST, PALM, ARM, SHOULDER, NECK, HEAD, EAR, BROW, NOSE, EYE, FACE, TEETH, LEG, FOOT, TOE, THUMB, etc. in a recent English-English dictionary, give illustrations and practise them with your classmates.

Speaking

Exercise 11.Use your outside reading, personal experiences, TV and video-watching, etc. to support, expand on or question the points and observations made in the chapter.