Active vocabulary of the text.

Exercise 8: Before reading the text explain some words: clinic, hospital, diagnosis, outpatient, public health, disease, surgery, prescription (brain-storming).

Exercise 9: Read the text:

Health is the most important thing in our life. If a person is healthy and strong he can have an interesting life and do a lot of things. A large number of clinics, hospitals, outpatients, and nursing centers take care of health. The public health services in Russia embrace the entire population and are financed substantially by the state budget. The private medical services are steadily expanding and constitute a certain part in medicine of Russia is gradually growing. According to the Constitution of Russia each citizen of our country has a right to be treated free of charge. When the person falls ill the doctor examines the patient, takes his temperature, puts him through the necessary tests, listens to his heart, sounds the lungs, takes his blood count, checks his blood pressure and on the basis of all this he diagnoses the case and puts the patient on a sick-list. The doctor makes prescriptions.

Main emphasis in Russia is laid on prevention or prophylactics. The all over effort against epidemics deserves special mention. Such diseases as plague, cholera, smallpox, malaria and many others have been stamped out. There are a lot of problems in Russia, but nevertheless medicine is advancing further and is successfully combating cancer, the disease that takes a heavy toll of human lives.

If you fall ill during your visit to Britain, you must get in touch with a doctor. Under the National Health Service (NHS) this costs you nothing. Explain to the receptionist that you are a temporary visitor to the country and she will give you a special form to fill in. If you are too ill to move, you may phone his surgery and the doctor will come to your house, but normally you have to go to the surgery for the consultation. Most doctors operate an appointment system, so that it is not necessary to wait long at the surgery before seeing a doctor. When you see the doctor, you describe your symptoms to him and he examines you and makes his diagnosis. Then he decides what treatment you must follow. Usually he gives you a prescription for tablets or medicine, which you must take to a chemist’s shop; most drugs can only be bought from a chemist’s if you have a prescription from the doctor, but some simple types are available without a prescription, e.g. aspirin, cough mixture. If you need a special treatment, the doctor will send you to see a specialist at the local hospital, but in Britain you must see the ordinary doctor before you can see a specialist.

The health problems facing people in Britain are different, than those in some other countries. Sedentary lifestyles and risky physical behavior are the two greatest causes of adult health problems.