2.Use the information of these texts to answer the questions

1. What was the original aim of the National Health Service and what used to happen before it began?

2. How is the NHS paid for?

3. What reforms have taken place in the NHS?

4. How does health care expenditure in Britain compare with other countries?

5. What indicators can be used to measure the health of a nation?

6. What factors contribute to good health? Which ones contributes to poor health?

7. How long do people live in Britain compared to other countries?

8. What major health problems in Britain?

9. What sort of treatment is mainly undertaken by private hospitals? What kind of activities do they not undertaken?

10. Which NHS charges increased during the 1980s?

3. Put the words in these sentences in the correct order.

1. 1948 the set in up was Service Health British National

2. area from to area health vary care and considerably health

3. private a range most treatment small involves operations of surgical

4. tend better to health than middle –class

4. Complete the sentences.

1. About 83 per cent of the cost of the health service …

2. As the population of Britain gets older …

3. Health and health care vary …

4. Most victims have …

5. Most private treatment involves …

III. Speaking

Use these questions to interview your partner:

What is your opinion on the question of public health care versus private medicine?

What is the best way of funding health care?

UNIT 2

Alternative medicine

I. Warm up

Discuss in pairs.

1. Which type of alternative medicine are you most likely to try? Number the types in order, with 1 meaning most likely and 10 meaning least likely.

_______ acupuncture _______ aromatherapy

_______ heat therapy _______ herbal medicine

_______ homeopathy _______ light therapy

_______ massage _______meditation

_______ music therapy _______ visualization

II. Vocabulary focus

1. Useful words for learning.

herbal - травяной

to restore - восстанавливать

to wage - вести (войну)

trend - направление

breathing - дыхание

addiction - склонность (к чему-либо)

2. Match the words and phrases with their definitions.

1. approach a) a way of doing things

2. attack b) having the result you want

3. enemy c) something that has existed for a long time

4. focus d) to try to hurt someone

5. germ e) a very small organism that causes illness

6. successful f) very small

7. pulse g) someone who wants to hurt you

8. skeptical h) to pay special attention to something

9. tiny i) the beat caused by your heart pumping

10. tradition j) not believing something easily

III. Reading

1. Read and translate the text.

In Britain and North America, acupuncture is considered “alternative medicine”, a trendy approach to healing. In China, however, acupuncture is far from alternative. In fact, for the Chinese, nothing could be more traditional than acupuncture. Can millions of Chinese be wrong? Should a centuries-old medical tradition be disused because the Oriental explanation for how it works, based on theories about the body’s “vital energy”, has no connection whatsoever to Western science?

Acupuncture is one of many approaches used in Chinese medicine, and it is part of a 2,000-year-old tradition that differs greatly from conventional Western medicine. According to Western medicine, we are constantly being attacked by germs, and Western doctors wage war against these tiny enemies. Chinese medicine, on the other hand, focuses on the balance of two kinds of energy called yin and yang. According to Chinese tradition, different people have different levels of yin and yang. When the energies of yin and yang are in balance, we are healthy; when the energies are out of balance, we become ill. A Chinese medical practitioner’s job is to restore the balance of energies. This is done with a combination of diet, acupuncture, and herbal medicine.

When a patient goes to a doctor of Chinese medicine, the doctor often spends about twenty minutes taking the patient’s pulse. The doctor also looks carefully at the patient’s tongue and listens carefully to the patient’s breathing. They perform few of the laboratory tests that are common in Western medicine. Many Western doctors have been skeptical about acupuncture and other Chinese approaches for some time. It is difficult for Western doctors to accept the idea of yin and yang; it is too different from the scientific traditions of Western medicine. But many people in the West are not worried about why Chinese medicine works. Chinese medicine has successfully treated a variety of health problems, including back pain, headaches, arthritis, and addiction. When people feel better, they don’t always need to know the reason for their good health.