Exercises

1. Fill in the gaps with one of the following words:

cause cereal contact cups going gone have
off runs stopped suggest suppose today

last

like

Patient: Doctor I'm afraid I have the. .

Doctor: Are you. to the toilet often?
Patient: Haven't. since very early this morning.
Doctor: What did you. for breakfast?
Patient: Just. and a few. of tea.
Doctor: That doesn't seem to be the. unless the milk
was.
Patient: I doubt it very much, more. the
soup. night.
Doctor: Do you think it had. off?
Patient: I. so, it had been in the fridge for a few days.
Doctor: I. you eat
nothing. and. me tommorow.
2. Fill in the text with ONE word:
A. Patients often want to know .. their illness or the
treatment they are receiving will affect their ability to drive.
Specific advice .. always be given by a doctor who knows
the patient's medical history and nature . their illness
but there are some general guidelines. First, it is always best to
assume that anyone taking prescribed drugs not drive.
One major problem is that many drugs . cause
drowsiness. Obviously tranquillisers and sleeping tablets are likely
to produce this particular problem. But the same effect can
caused by remedies prescribed for colds, coughs and
allergies such .. hay fever. For the first 48 hours after
starting drug treatment, assume that you'll be unsafe. Then just
wait and see how you feel after a couple of days. However,
your doctor or pharmacist warns you that sleepiness
is a recognised problem with the drug you're taking, then you
.. avoid driving altogether. If you've been into hospital for
surgery or treatment of any kind, then it's wise to allow ten days
before you start driving again. The anaesthetic will usually wear
.. fairly quickly but there will inevitably be some
tiredness after a hospital stay. To drive in the first place, you need
to be fit, healthy, strong and able to cope unexpected
problems and emergencies. However, there are two specific
illnesses that I must mention. Anyone who has had a heart attack
would probably be wise to avoid driving two months or
so. When you do start driving again, do so in quiet, off-peak traffic.
Anyone who gets heart pain caused . stress or

excitement really would be best advised to avoid driving

altogether. Driving can produce tremendous periods of stress and
a heart attack at the wheel can be a lethal experience for a lot of
people.
Epileptics are usually told that they can drive if they have had no attacks
.. at least three years. But, of course, they should stay
. the road if their treatment is being changed. Those hints will,
I hope, prove of some help. But the golden rule must always be if you
are doubt, then don't drive! It isn't only your own health
that you're putting at risk.
B. "I Keep getting chest pains, doctor!" is a common enough
complaint . my patients. The pain they are most worried
about is the one . strikes them in the centre of the chest
underneath the breastbone because they think they are having a
heart attack. The good news is that it is usually heartburn,
has nothing to do with the heart itself. It is a special
type .. indigestion where acid from the stomach is
regurgitated upwards into the food pipe oesophagus.
The environment in the oesophagus is alkaline, so the excess acid
burns the lining. As this tube shares some of the same nerves as
the heart, pain is often 'referred' the area around the
heart - hence the name and the fear that it is more serious
.. indigestion. Without a doctor to advise you, it is very
difficult to tell which is a heart pain and which is heartburn. The
symptoms .. heartburn are a pain or burning sensation
behind the breastbone. This may or may not be associated
.. regurgitation of food or liquid into the back of the
throat or mouth. The fluid may . acid to the taste or
watery and regurgitation is more likely to occur when you bend
down. The most common cause of this is a weak muscle at the
junction of the gullet and stomach - normally, this muscle stops
the reflux acid from the stomach. For overweight
people, the act of bending down squeezes the stomach and excess
fat around the stomach, forcing food and acid in the wrong
direction. If you want to prevent heartburn -then don't smoke or
drink alcohol - they are both irritants and tend .. increase
the amount of acid your stomach produces - and don't eat late at
night, or you'll go to bed and lie flat with a distended stomach
that's busy making acid to digest the food. Very fatty, spicy or cold
foods may well make matters worse. Avoid coffee, cucumbers,
onions or anything . which you find brings on
heartburn and don't wear tight belts or clothes, which will squeeze
you just in the right place to bring on the symptoms of
heartburn. Do eat smaller meals and try to lose a few pounds
. you are overweight. Also, take care when you bend
down - if you keep your back straight, you won't squash the
contents up and out of your stomach.

C. Taste enables us .. differentiate between bitter, sweet, salty

or sour flavours. Smell is also used to help distinguish between

tastes, so disturbance of smell can alter our taste appreciation.
instance, if your nose is blocked due a cold, you
can't smell and appear to lose your sense of taste as well.
Dysgeusia is the medical word for disturbance of taste sensation,
and it usually occurs when we have a dry mouth. Each person has
about 10,000 tastebuds. Most are .. the tongue but there are
also a few on the back of the throat. They are contained in raised
pimples, or papillae. Large papillae are mushroom-shaped and
called fungiform. The smaller ones are filliform papillae and look
.. mountain peaks when seen under the microscope. If you
poke your tongue . and have a look at the surface in a
mirror, you can see small and large papillae on the rough-textured
surface.
Taste pores, long-necked tubes, in these pimples are surrounded
. four types of taste buds, each of which is composed
.. special cells which are sensitive .. either sweet,
sour, salty or bitter flavours. Certain chemicals in food and drink
provoke these tastes by dissolving in saliva and entering the pore.
Hairs projecting from these cells into the pore are stimulated
the chemicals. When a nerve is provoked in this way, it
sends messages to the brain the glossopharyngeal nerve,
helping us perceive taste. However, if we have a dry mouth, there
is not enough saliva to dissolve all the chemicals and appreciate
the full flavour. Complete or partial loss of taste usually stems
from degeneration of the taste buds due to the aging process. But
the most common cause is a dry mouth, . can be caused
by many factors, including some drugs. Smoking also dries the
mouth. The nicotine paralyses the hairs in the cells and adds a
taste of its own, so smokers cannot appreciate to the full the
delicacy of the food they are eating. Another common cause of
taste loss is blocking . other strong food chemicals. For
instance, spices and garlic overpower the taste buds and produce
a distorted sensation of flavours. Damage to taste buds also arises
inflammation, stomatitis, or nasty conditions such as
cancer of the mouth, or where radiotherapy has been given. The
special nerves conveying the taste messages can be damaged in a
head injury, tumour of the brain or after surgery on the head and
neck. Some psychiatric illnesses cause disturbances .
taste, probably because of hallucinations rather than true taste
loss. So, when you realise you've had a really tasty meal, you've
got a lot to be thankful for!