Unit 1. Old People

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 437.

Listen to the conversation about old people.

Exercise 1: INTENSIVE LISTENING

1. Complete: “Lyn, I wonder if you could begin by telling something about the size of this problem.”

2. Complete: “Well, of course it is an increasing problem – there are many more old people around now simply because better medical care is able to eliminate some of the diseases which used to kill people off at much younger ages...”

3. Complete: “And there isn't the size of house for example which will allow younger people to take care of an old parent, to have three generation families”.

4. “Little by little” here means:

(a) slowly.

(b) imperceptibly.

(c) in a small way.

5. Complete: “The invitation is made out of a sense of duty”.

6. Choose the correct one: “Yes,

(a) a lot of times.”

(b) a lot of the times.”

(c) a lot of the time.”

(d) a lot of time.”

7. “Most county councils and local authorities provide facilities, say, for some district visitors...”

“Say” here means:

(a) I think.

(b) for example.

(c) probably.

8. Complete: “Yes, this kind of old person ur speaking of remains in his or her own house”.

9. Choose: “Yes...

(a) you aren't really

(b) you're not really talking about facilities available for people who cannot live alone”.

10. Complete: “Yes this is what I mean... The people who have to live somewhere else”.

11. “in the way of” here means:

(a) obstructing.

(b) like.

(c) similar to.

12. “very pressing cases” here means:

(a) urgent cases.

(b) those who insist.

(c) those who can pay.

13. Underline the word which the speaker stresses most heavily:

“... in general, excellent places.”

14. Choose:

(a) the old poor houses.

(b) the old poor houses.

(The italicized word has a heavy stress).

15. Complete: “And they still have this stigma don't they.”

16. Choose: “... even though

(a) they're not

(b) they are not

(c) they aren't suffering from some specific disease...”

17. Complete: “Nearly every time we nurse... we go into a ward there are at least three beds I should say out of thirty...”

18. “Geriatric” means:

(a) concerning someone who has been ill but has recovered.

(b) concerning old people.

(c) concerning the care of the old.

19. The speaker's voice

(a) rises or

(b) falls on the italicized word?

“It's not possible to move the person out, is it?”

20. “This kills them off” here means “this causes their death”.

(a) true.

(b) false.

Exercise 2: GENERAL COMPREHENSION

Listen again to the conversation. Answer these questions by putting a tick (Ö) in front of the correct word, phrase or sentence.

1. “The care of the old and infirm” means

(a) the care of two groups of people – those who are old and others who are infirm.

(b) the care of one group of people – those who are both old and infirm.

2. According to the speaker named Lyn, bronchial pneumonia used to be “old man's friend” because

(a) it is easy to cure.

(b) it used to be inseparable from old men.

(c) old men often used to die of it.

(d) it meant a quick death.

3. Tensions are created by old people in some families

(a) because of the house they live in.

(b) because of their failng constitution.

(c) because they become a burden to the other members of the household.

4. Old people are sometimes invited to live with their married sons and daughters because

(a) they think they ought to look after their parents.

(b) they love their parents.

5. According to Lyn, district visitors of one kind or another are provided

(a) by most county councils.

(b) by few county councils.

6. Owing to the large number of old people who are waiting to go and live at old people homes, it is only

(a) the most insistent cases.

(b) the most urgent cases.

(c) the most influential cases that are chosen.

7. A poor person may hesitate to go to an “old folks' home” because

(a) it must be a bad one.

(b) it may possibly be a bad one.

8. (a) Because of the shortage of beds

(b) In spite of the shortage of beds in “old folks' homes”, some old people occupy beds in hospitals even though they aren't suffering from some specific disease.

9. The word “geriatric”, as in “purely geriatric beds”, is used to refer to

(a) those who have been ill but are now well.

(b) people who are not able to serve themselves.

(c) anything concerning the care of old people.

10. The question of how many beds in a hospital ward may be occupied by the old is sometimes decided by

(a) those who are in charge of the ward to the patients' relations.

(b) the senior nurse who is in charge of the ward.