Read the text and do the exercises that follow.

HEALTH IS THE GREATEST WEALTH

Is there anything more precious than health? If your body suffers from some disorder your mind suffers with the body, too. You can’t be good either at work or at studies. Good health is better than the best medicine. 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. The English proverb ―Sickness in the body brings sickness to the mind expresses a similar idea, but from a different point of view. 

If you have a headache, toothache, backache, stomachache or earache, if you have a sore throat, eye or finger, if you feel pain in your abdomen, if it hurts you to move, you need help. First of all you should call to the polyclinic to have an appointment with your district doctor for a certain hour. When you come to the polyclinic you go to the registry first. A registering clerk on duty will ask your name, and address and will find your patient’s card. Then the clerk will direct you to the consulting room where your district doctor sees his patients. The doctor will listen to your complaints and examine you thoroughly: feel your pulse, listen to your heart and lungs, palpate your abdomen, take your temperature and blood pressure and send you to the laboratory for some tests. On the basis of the findings he will make a diagnosis and administer you some treatment. The only thing you will have to do is to follow the directions. Otherwise a slight ailment can develop into an incurable malady.

In case you catch a cold and feel rotten you should stay in bed for at least three or four days. Then you should call in a doctor who will examine you and prescribe a proper treatment. If you cough and sneeze, complain of a sore throat or are running a high temperature, you should follow the prescribed treatment to be well again as soon as possible. It is well known that if one doesn’t follow the prescribed treatment this may cause serious complications, especially after the flu. Sometimes in addition to the medicine it is useful to have a scalding foot-bath or put a hot water bottle to the feet and have hot tea or milk. It also helps keep the fever down. At times you cannot avoid different infections. A lot of children suffer chicken-pox, measles or scarlet fever in their childhood.

Taking a good care of your body is one of the most important things you can do for yourself. A healthy lifestyle, physical exercise will reduce the possibility of any disease developing. To be healthy and cheerful people go in for sports, have cold rubdowns, jog and do morning exercises. It is also important to be out in the open air as much as possible. We know all these rules, as since our childhood we have been taught to follow them.

We all now and then have to go to the district polyclinic to get the certificate of health to hand it in to different institutions. We have to be examined by different medical specialists including a therapeutist, a neurologist, a surgeon, an eye-doctor, an ENT-doctor (ear-nose-throat) and other specialists. They have to check our kidneys, liver, stomach, eyesight, and hearing as well. We have to go to the laboratory for blood and urine tests and to the X-ray room for the chest examination. It takes a lot of time to have everything ready but all this enables the doctor to obtain objective findings on our health condition. When we return to our doctor he/she looks through the results of our examination by different specialists. Then he/she may ask to keep the thermometer in the armpit for 10 minutes. The doctor also measures our blood pressure. Then he/she may ask to strip to the waist and listens to the heart and lungs. When the examination is over the doctor fills in the patient’s card and writes out the certificate of health.

I. Practice the pronunciation of the following words and word combinations. Translate them:

a registry - at the registry, to work at the registry, to come to the registry, a registering clerk, to work as a registering clerk, the registering clerk on duty

blood - to make somebody's blood analysis, to take blood from somebody's finger, to take somebody's blood pressure, his blood pressure is normal, her blood pressure is abnormal

X-ray - to be X-rayed, to X-ray, an X-ray examination, an X-ray room, to X-ray a patient's stomach, his lungs were X-rayed

a nurse - nurses, an experienced nurse, a nurse on duty, to work as a nurse

a therapeutist - an experienced therapeutist, to work as a therapeutist, the therapeutist listens to the patient's heart and lungs, the therapeutist examined me thoroughly

a diagnosis - diagnoses, to make a diagnosis, to make a correct diagnosis, the therapeutist made the diagnosis of the flu

to prescribe - to prescribe a treatment, to prescribe some medicine for the flu 

a trouble - a serious trouble, to trouble, don't trouble trouble till trouble troubles you, to complain of some troubles, a heart trouble, a lung trouble, a liver trouble, a stomach trouble

a headache - to have a headache, to have a bad headache, to complain of a headache, to suffer from a bad headache

a throat - a sore throat, to have a sore throat, to suffer from a sore throat

a waist - to strip to the waist, the doctor asked the patient to strip to the waist

a pulse - to feel somebody's pulse, his pulse is normal, her pulse was abnormal

a rubdown - to have a rubdown, to have a cold rubdown, you should have a cold rubdown in the morning, cold rubdowns are useful

to catch - to catch (a) cold, to catch (a) bad cold, he caught (a) bad cold

a cough - to cough, to cough badly, I don't cough, to have a bad cough

to sneeze - to sneeze badly, he doesn't sneeze, why do you usually sneeze?

to cause - to cause pain, to cause a complication, to cause a serious complication, what caused these complications?

a scalding foot-bath - to have a scalding foot-bath, to prescribe a scalding foot-bath, the doctor prescribed a scalding foot-bath to me.

fever - a bad fever, to keep the fever down, to have a bad fever

to reveal - revealed, the medical examination reveals, the X-ray examination revealed lung troubles

II. Discuss the following questions in pairs:

1. What proverbs about the importance of health do you know? What do they mean?

2. When do people usually go to the polyclinic?

3. How can you have an appointment with your doctor?

4. Where do you go first when you come to the polyclinic?

5. What information does the registering clerk on duty need to find your patient’s card?

6. What does the medical examination usually include?

7. What helps the doctor make a correct diagnosis?

8. Why is it important to follow the prescribed treatment?

9. What does the treatment usually consist of in case you catch a cold?

10. What helps keep the fever down?

11. Did you suffer any diseases in your childhood?

12. What does a healthy lifestyle mean?

13. Why is it important to be out in the open air as much as possible?

14. Do you follow a healthy lifestyle? What do you do to keep fit?

15. Did you have to go to the polyclinic before entering University? Why?

16. What specialists examined you?

17. What were your blood pressure and temperature?

18. What tests were you sent to the laboratory for?

19. Were you X-rayed?

20. What did the X-ray examination reveal?

21. Were you satisfied with the results of the medical examination?

22. How much time did it take you to get your certificate of health?

III. Find English equivalents for the following word combinations and sentences:

1. когда я простужен; 2. сбить температуру; 3. класть горячую грелку к ногам; 4. заниматьcя спортом; 5. записатьcя к врачу; 6. у меня ушло много времени, чтобы все подготовить; 7. измерять температуру;
8. чувствoвать себя отвратительно; 9. прослушать сердце и легкие;
10. лежать (больной) в постели; 11. делать холодные обтирания; 12. быть на свежем воздухе как можно больше; 13. делать горячую ножную ванну; 14. измерить кровяное давление; 15. поставить диагноз; 16. перенeсти скарлатину, корь и ветряную оспу; 17. вызывать серьезные осложнения, в особенности после гриппа; 18. соблюдать прописанное лечение;
19. сделать анализ крови; 20. заполнять карточку больного; 21. прощупать пульс; 22. жаловаться на боль в горле; 23. неизлечимое заболевание;
24. соблюдать предписания; 25. соблюдать правила; 26. выписать медицинскую справку; 27. просмотреть (изучить) результаты.

IV. Translate the following sentences into English:

1. Я боюсь, у вас высокая температура. Дайте мне вашу руку, я прощупаю пульс.

2. Доктор прописал вам что-нибудь вчера? — Да, какое-то лекарство, которое я должен принимать 3 раза в день.

3. Когда врач принимает больных? — С 9 утра до 2 часов дня.

4. Можно мне записаться к врачу на 11 часов?

5. Если ваш однокурсник болен гриппом, он должен лежать в постели несколько дней.

6. Будьте осторожны, иначе у вас может быть осложнение после операции. 7. Есть вызов на улицу Лесную, 3. Он поступил несколько минут назад.

8. Врач велел вам сделать рентгеновское обследование и все необходимые анализы.

9. Я чувствую себя отвратительно, у меня страшно болит голова и горло. 10. Вчера мы вызвали врача, потому что наш сын сильно температурил. Я боюсь, что он болен ветряной оспой.

11. Как правило, каждое утро я делаю гимнастику и обтираюсь холодной водой.

12. Что случилось с вашим голосом? У вас болит горло?

13. Боюсь, что у меня простуда. Мне нужно измерить температуру.

14. Принимайте это лекарство. Оно должно понизить температуру.

15. Он чихает и кашляет. Он очень сильно простужен.

16. Что могло вызвать такое серьезное осложнение? — Думаю, что больной не следовал прописанному лечению.

17. В начале медицинского осмотра врач просит больного раздеться до пояса, прощупывает пульс, прослушивает сердце и легкие. Затем врач посылает больного на различные анализы, чтобы проверить функции желудка, печени и почек.

18. Все те, кто поступают в высшее учебное заведение, должны представить медицинскую справку.

19. Наши ученые ведут большую научно-исследовательскую работу по борьбе с разными болезнями.