An Apple a Day Keeps a Doctor Away

Find out how to pronounce the following word combinations: Vitamin pills, teetotaller, squash, sprained ankle, obsession.

· Do you often go to the doctor?

· What should you do to avoid frequent visits to a doctor?

Read the text and do the tasks after it.

A checkup may start when a nurse calls you from the waiting room. He or she might start by checking your weight and height, as well as your blood pressure and maybe your temperature. Blood pressure: This shows how hard your heart is pumping blood throughout your body. A cuff that gets tighter and tighter on your arm is used to measure this. As the air drains out of the cuff, the nurse will watch the numbers to get your pressure. Blood pressure can be too high or too low, but yours is probably just right! To take your temperature the nurse uses a thermometer, which is normally put into your armpit or your mouth, the nurse can find out if your temperature is in the normal range (97 to 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit or 36.1 to 37.5 degrees Celsius). If it is higher, it means that you have a fever and your body is working to fight off an infection. The nurse may check your hearing and vision (eyesight). If you have trouble with either one of these, you might need to see a hearing specialist or an eye doctor. The nurse then might ask you to go to the bathroom and give some urine in a cup. Urine can give clues about whether something is wrong with the way a person's body is working. But usually, the nurse tests your urine and says everything is fine. All of these procedures, measurements, and test results will go into your medical chart, so the doctor can look them over. Then it's time to meet the doctor. The doctor will come in and say hello. He or she will probably ask you some questions, like how you're doing and if you have any problems or concerns. The doctor wants to make sure your body is working just like it should. To do this, he or she will use equipment, such as a stethoscope (to listen to your lungs and heart), an otoscope (to look inside your ears, nose, and throat), and an ophthalmoscope (to look inside your eyes). Your doctor might check the reflexes in your knee with a rubber hammer. He or she also will probably feel around your belly. You may wonder why doctors do all this stuff? Here's why:

Listening with a stethoscope: The stethoscope lets the doctor hear your heartbeat and the way your lungs sound. Doctors know just how healthy hearts and lungs should sound. If yours doesn't sound quite right, the doctor will want to investigate further.

Looking in your ears, nose, and throat: Doctors know what healthy ears, noses, and throats should look like. The otoscope lets the doctor get a good look at yours and the light helps spot any problems, like fluid in your ear that could be an infection.

Looking in your eyes: Doctors know what healthy eyes should look like. The ophthalmoscope lets the doctor see the retina, the light-sensitive part of your eye that sends messages to the brain. Though the doctor is shining a light in your eye, try to keep your eye still so the doctor can get a good look.

Bopping you with the rubber hammer: This is when the doctor taps your knee and your leg swings up without you doing anything. It's a funny part of the exam, but there's a good reason for it. This tests how well your nerves are carrying messages in your body. When your reflexes respond to the hammer, the doctor knows your nerves can do the important job they have – carrying messages from the brain and spinal cord that tell your body what to do.

Feeling around your belly: There's a lot of important stuff in your belly – from your stomach to your intestine(s) and liver. Doctors know how healthy bellies should feel and they want to make sure yours feels just right. A lot of doctors leave time at the end of a checkup for questions. These are all important questions and doctors can give you good advice. The doctor may have some information he or she wants to share with you, too. For instance, if summer is on the way, the doctor may want to remind you about safety issues, such as wearing bike helmets, swimming only in designated areas and wearing sunscreen. Don't forget that you can ask questions, too. Even if you feel a little funny or embarrassed, go ahead with questions. By asking questions you'll learn more about the way your body works and how you can take care of something very important – your health! But everybody knows that an apple a day keeps a doctor away. What does it mean in your opinion? Actually, if you want to be healthy and visit a doctor less, you should eat health(y) food, say “NO” to bad habits and go in for sports and keep fit.

Keeping fit and staying healthy have, not surprisingly, become a growing industry. Quite apart from the amount of money spent each year on doctors' prescriptions and medical treatment, huge sums are now spent on health foods and drugs of various kinds, from vitamin pills to mineral water, not to mention health clubs and books and videos about keeping fit. We are more concerned than ever, it seems, about the water we drink and the air we breathe, and are smoking less, though not yet drinking alcohol. This does not appear to mean that coughs and sneezes have been banished, or that we can all expect to live to a hundred. To give a personal example, one of my friends, who is a keeping-fit fanatic, a non smoker (and teetotaller), and who is very particular about what he eats, is at present lying in bed with a wrist in a cast and a badly sprained ankle. Part of his healthy lifestyle is to play squash every day after work, and that accounts for the ankle. He also cycles everywhere, and if you have ever tried to cycle through rush-hour traffic with a sprained ankle, you will understand how he acquired the broken wrist. For health, it seems not just a matter of a good diet and plenty of exercise. Too much exercise can be harmful, as many joggers have discovered. Eating the right food can easily become an obsession, as can overworking, which you might have to do to be able to afford your membership in the squash club, your mountain bike, your health food, and a few holidays in peaceful and healthy places.

Comprehension:

Translate the following words and expressions from the text. Use them in sentences of your own:

Медосмотр, подмышка, бороться с инфекцией, взять мочу на анализ, медицинская карта, сердцебиение (удары сердца в минуту), исследовать (изучать), сетчатка глаза, молоток невропатолог, спинной мозг, позвоночник, кишечник, меры предосторожности, средства защиты от солнца.

Find in the text the English equivalents to the following words and expressions:

a stethoscope, an otoscope, an ophthalmoscope, fluid, reflexes respond to the hammer, designated areas, a keeping-fit fanatic, a badly sprained ankle, become an obsession.