Unit 6 the making of a surgeon

1. Unit 6 the making of a surgeon .

2. Background information • The author: Dr William A. Nolen is a famous American surgeon and writer. He wrote a syndicated medical advice column. Our text is an excerpt from his memoir The Making of a Surgeon—William Nolen’s story of his transformation from student to practitioner, from a brash medical school student to a surgeon possessing skill and judgment.

3. 1 general practitioner: a doctor who develops a wide knowledge of all kinds of illness. He delivers babies, diagnoses illnesses, performs surgery and sets broken bones. • 2 specialist : treating diseases of certain fields, eg. obstetrician, pediatrician • 3 researcher: a doctor who devotes time to medical research. He use the laboratories and hospital facilities of medical school to conduct research program.

4. Careers in medicine in America • To become a medical doctor in America, one must attend four years of college and receive a bachelor’s degree, followed by four years of medical school. Then he becomes an intern in a hospital and receives supervised practical training. Finally he becomes a resident at a hospital. He often assists experienced surgeons during operations. In an emergency, he may take over the work of the staff surgeon.

5. Warm-up questions • 1 Samuel Johnson, the famous 18th century English scholar says, ”Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.” Give a brief comment on this saying. • 2 Are you a self-confident person? If yes, what has made you self-confident of yourself? If no, what has made you lacking in self-confidence? • 3 In your opinion, how can a person lacking in self-confidence become self-confident?

6. Comprehension questions 1 Why did Dr. Nolen have trouble going to sleep when he first became a resident? 2 Why did Dr. Nolen no longer dwell on his decision once it had been made in the last month of his residency? 3 Was the doctor afraid of making mistakes at the end of his residency? 4 In what respects did Dr. Nolen say self-confidence can help him?

7. 8 What questions did Dr. Nolen ask himself as the year of his chief residency came to an end? What was his answer? 9 Why did Dr. Nolen dread the ringing of the telephone during the first few months of his year as chief resident? 10 Why did he lose a lot of sleep at night during those months? 11 How did he g\find the peace of mind he needed to relax?

8. Language points 1 Making: the process of being made or coming into being eg. The making of the English language, the making of a hero 2 draw to a close: come to an end eg. This semester is drawing to a close. 3 conclude: (1) arrive at a belief or opinion by reasoning eg. The commander concluded from the evidence that the enemy fled north.(2) come or bring to an end eg. The Olympics is scheduled to conclude on August 23.(3) arrange, bring about eg. conclude a peace treaty or a contract . .

9. 6 sweat: (vi) perspire, eg. He sweated heavily during the marathon race. (n) perspiration eg: We were all in a cold sweat over the test. 7 inevitable: unavoidable, inexorable eg. Death comes inevitably. 8 sit on: neglect, do nothing about eg. We should not sit on those who need help. 9 sole: one and only, unshared eg Drunken driving was the sole cause of the accident. .

10. Group discussion 1 when he is talking to patients? 2 when he is making a decision? 3 when he is making a prescription? 4 when he is looking over X-rays? 5 when he is performing an operation?

11. Homework assignment 1 vocabulary activities 2 enriching your word power 3 usage 4 Structure 5 cloze 6 translation 7 guided writing: parallelism, paragraph writing