B. Understanding the Reading

Main Idea

Check (3) the three main ideas of the reading.

_____ 1. People have always searched for ways to improve life.

_____ 2. Prehistoric people experimented with surgery.

_____ 3. Many important medical discoveries were made in the last century.

_____ 4. Acupuncture is a traditional way to treat sick people.

_____ 5. Technology and tradition are both important parts of medicine and health care today.

Comprehension Questions

Answer the questions about the reading.

1. What did the Egyptians believe about sickness?

2. Who was the first real doctor? Where and when did he live?

3. When did medical schools and hospitals open in Europe?

4. What are plagues?

5. Who drew pictures of the human body, including muscles?

6. What happened in 1895?

7. What are antibiotics?

8. What is acupuncture?

Vocabulary: a word group

Underline one word on each line that does not belong to the others.

1. rabbits goats leaches cattle

2. supermarket restaurant department store bookstore

3. century millennium year coast

4. difficult uncomplicated simple easy

5. ocean river canal island

6. disease cure sickness plague

7. regular usual ordinary similar

 

 

Lesson 71.

DISCUSSION

List at least 5 different things that people can become addicted to. Choose one from your list and discus the possible results of this addiction.

2. Questionnaires

Ask each other questions from one of the questionnaires:

DRINK AND YOU

1. Do you drink alcohol every day?

2. How much do you drink a week?

3. Do you ever get drunk? How often?

4. Do you need a drink to relax?

5. Do you drink with other people or on your own?

6. Do you regularly get a craving for a drink? (= a very strong desire)

7. Do you think it’s a habit or an addiction?

SMOKING AND YOU

1. Do you smoke? Cigarettes? Cigars? A pipe?

2. How many do you smoke a day?

3. Do you smoke to relax?

4. Do you feel nervous if you haven’t had a smoke for a long time?

5. Do you get strong cravings?

6. Do you wish you could stop smoking?

7. Could you give it up easily?

Does your partner have a problem?

3. READING

Read the texts:

EXTRACT 1

 

Slowly, the drink began to take over and things got worse. His behavior was becoming unpredictable. He tells of one incident in a club on a Sunday afternoon when a fight broke out and he and some friends were involved. Minutes later he was outside being questioned by police and then spent several hours at the police station. He was released without charge but, in spite of that shock, the next day he was banging on the door of his local pub five minutes before opening time, craving his first drink of the day. Then it dawned on him. What kind of person stands outside a pub every day desperate for a drink? Only someone with a drink problem. He was a well-known sportsman perhaps, but secretly he was a lonely, desperate alcoholic.

EXTRACT 2

One day, he arrived for training in a bad state. It was to be the big turning point. The first person he saw was Steve Jacobs. “I’ve got a drink problem and I need to go to a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous,” he blurted out. At last! He’d said it! Tony Adams, respected captain of Arsenal and an England international, winner of six major trophies in English football, was asking for help for the first time in his life. He finally admitted that he had a problem that was too powerful to face on his own. Almost immediately, a ray of hope came to him. Despite the mess he was in. if he could devote the same enthusiasm and energy to keeping off alcohol as he had to playing football, then he had a chance.

4. DISCUSSION

Choose the best answer below:

1. In the club one Sunday afternoon

a. the writer’s friend started a fight.

b. the writer started a fight.

c. it is not clear who started the fight.

2. The writer

a. knew he could stop drinking by himself.

b. asked someone to help him stop drinking.

c. met someone from Alcoholics Anonymous.

Why do you think that such a successful sports person became an alcoholic?

5. VOCABULARY 1

alcoholic	addiction	addictive	addict
addicted	alcohol	alcoholism

Use these words to complete the sentences:

1. A surprising number of people are ….. to gambling.

2. He checked into a clinic to try to get over his drug …..

3. I’ve never met anyone who is actually a drug …..

4. Both heroin and crack cocaine are extremely … substances.

5. She realized he was an … when he started drinking at breakfast time.

6. The problem got so had he started hiding … around the house.

7. Overcoming … is a daily process. It means saying “no” to drink every day for the rest if our life.

6. VOCABULARY 2

Use the correct form of these expressions to complete the sentences below:

seek professional help

get withdrawal symptoms

kick the habit

have a drink problem

take an overdose

1. I think my boss ………………………………..

You can smell alcohol on his breath first thing in the morning.

2. She died after accidentally …………… of sleeping pills.

3. A lot of people want to give up smoking, but it’s very difficult to …………...

4. When he wasn’t able to get hold of any drugs for a few days, he started to …………..

5. When he realized he was addicted to alcohol, he decided to …………….

7. DISCUSSIONS

Discuss these questions in pairs:

1. What is the difference between a habit and an addiction?

2. Look again at the list you made earlier. Are some types of addiction more socially acceptable than others? If so, which types and why do you think this is so?

3. Are the following addictions really possible? Are they dangerous in any way?

4. Do you feel that there are certain types of personality who are more likely to become addicts?

5. What would you do if you found out that your friend had a serious addiction problem, but was doing nothing about it?

 

 

8. DISCUSSION

Discuss these questions with a partner:

1. Do you have any habits which you consider bad habits?

2. Do you have any old habits that you can’t give up?

3. Did you use to have a bad habit that you’ve given up? How did you do it?

4. Are there any bad habits in other people that really annoy you?

9. READING

Read about these people with unusually anti-social habits and answer the questions below. Which one is the strangest? What do they all have in common?