Ill. Independent Work: The Strange Doctor

Exercise 1. Read the text.

The Strange Doctor

Their first summer in New England, a man and his wife are going along a strange country road. They are late so he is driving at top speed. In spite of this he notices a large house with a sign announcing that a doctor lives here.

Then something goes wrong with the car and it crashes against a tree. The driver is unhurt but his wife is seriously injured. She is unconscious. The road is a lonely one: there are no other cars and few houses.

The man remembers the doctor's sign some distance away. He takes his wife in his arms, runs back to that house and rings the bell. A tall, grey-haired man opens the door and says he is a doctor. There is no one else in the house.

Together they carry the woman into a dusty, disordered room and lay her upon the operating table. Examining her the doctor says that her skull is fractured and the only chance of saving her life is to operate at once. The husband hesitates but has no choice.

"You'll have to act as an anesthetist", the doctor says, "There is no one else here". Weak and shocked, the man obeys, but, when his wife has been etherized, the doctor with a knife in his hand, advises "You'd better wait outside. I can get on alone now".

The man is standing and looking from the darkness into the lighted room. Suddenly he hears steps and sees three men, two of them are armed and the third is carrying a rope. They are coming slowly to the door.

"For God's sake, wait!" the husband asks. "My wife's skull has been opened; any delay now must mean certain death."

Whispering one of the man asks, "What do you take us for?"

"Thieves."

"No," the man answers. "We work at a neighboring asylum. The man operating your wife is mad. He escaped only two hours ago".

Notes:

asylum [s'sailsm] психіатрична лікарня

mad [masd] божевільний

escape [is'keip] тікати

hesitate ['heziteit] сумніватися, вагатися

thief [9i:f] злодій

Exercise 2. Think and answer. Explain your choice.

To your mind, what is the ending of this story? Here are some variants:

1. The husband together with the three men interrupts the operation.

2. The husband does not let the three men interrupt the operation.

3. Do you have any other variant?

Exercise 3. Read the end of the story.

The three men agree to wait until the operation is over. Through the window they see that the operation is finished, then they run to the madman and take him away.

Then they bring back doctors for the woman and she is taken to New York. There she is placed in a hospital under the care of a famous doctor. Carefully examining her fractured skull this doctor says, "Your wife will get well and be normal again, but I can't understand it! Only one operation I know could have saved her, and the only man ever performed that operation successfully. That does not explain anything because that particular man went mad years ago, and now he is in an asylum somewhere in New England."

(Based on C. Pollock)

LESSON EIGHTEEN

I	Speaking	First Medical Aid (Part II)
II	Grammar	1. Зворот to be going to для вираження наміру в майбутньому(§60). 2. Дієслово у Future Indefinite та Future Continuous (§61). 3. Питально-заперечні речення (§62)
III	Independent Work	Grammar Box: Future Tense