Unit IV healthy lifestyles Starting-Up

Is there anything more important than health? Hardly anyone will doubt it. If your body suffers from any disorder your mind suffers with the body, too. You can’t be good either at work or study. Aches and pains lead to irritation, nervous breakdown, exhaustion and apathy.

The old wisdom says that good health is not all we need in life, but if we are in poor health, all other things aren’t worth much.

Discuss with other students:

A What does ‘health’ mean to you? The following questions may

be of help.

Is health

• something to do with being physically fit?

• something to do with medicine?

• living to an old age?

• something quite different from illness or medicine (things we can do to prevent illness and become healthier)?

B Being healthy means different things to different people.

Compare you ideas with other students and make a list which

may be started as follows:

For me, being healthy is

• to be able to run for a bus without getting out of breath

• to have the ideal weight for my height

• feeling glad to be alive when I wake up in the morning

• eating the right foods, etc.

Vocabulary Focus

1 How are you feeling?

Make sure you know all the words and phrases below.

Use a dictionary if needed.

• I feel breathless / dizzy / giddy / faint / feverish / sick / seedy / shivery.

• I’ve got a cold / a cough / a headache / a sore throat / a stomach ache / a temperature / a pain in the back / a rash on my chest / a bruise on my leg / a black eye / a lump on my arm / painful joints / blisters / sunburn / a swollen cheek / quinsy / indigestion / diarrhea.

• My foot is out of joint; I’ve sprained / dislocated my ankle; My nose is clogged up; I’ve lost my appetite.

2 Study the meanings of the verbs below and pay attention to

their structure patterns.

• ache, e.g. My heart / ear / tooth, etc. aches. His body ached for a rest.

• hurt, e.g. The plaster won’t hurt you. My shoe hurts me a bit. My hand still hurts a little.

• pain, e.g. My arm pains me a bit. It pains me to step on the left foot.

• cure, e.g. Nobody will cure Mark of laziness. Her grief soon cures. What cannot be cured must be endured. (Proverb)

• heal, e.g. (also ~ up, ~ over) The ointment healed the wound. The ulcer healed slowly. The sore healed up in a fortnight. Time heals most troubles.

• treat, e.g. Which doctor is treating you? How do you treat a case of rheumatism? Tuberculosis can be treated with penicillin.

3 Supply the nouns and adjectives corresponding to the verbs

given above (e.g. pain – a pain – painful – painless) and make

up sentences of your own.

4 What do doctors do?

Make up sentences of your own using the following phrases:

examine you; take your temperature; listen to your chest; take your blood pressure; feel your pulse; look in your ears, nose, throat; operate on you; put you on a sick list; prescribe medicine (make out a prescription).