Practice English Listening B2 Exercises – Have you seen a doctor?

A

Answers may vary. Possible answer: Michael and Gina are talking about Gina’s health.

B

1   Gina hasn’t seen a doctor yet because she doesn’t feel that bad.

2   Michael says Gina should see a doctor if she feels worse because the flu is serious this year.

3   Gina’s sister is giving her a ride home.

4   Gina is concerned at the end of the conversation because she has a lot of work to do and can’t afford to get sick.

A B

Michael:   Hey, Gina. How’s it going? Oh, are you all right?

Gina:   Not really. For a second there, I felt a little dizzy.

Michael:   Uh-oh. Maybe you’d better take it easy for a few minutes. Is there anything I can get you? Water?

Gina:   No, that’s okay. I think I’m just coming down with something. This morning, I had a sore throat and a headache and now, I’m feeling weak and a bit nauseous.

Michael:   It sounds like you might be getting the flu. Have you seen a doctor?

Gina:   No, it’s not that bad. I think I’ll just take a sick day tomorrow and stay home.

Michael:   If it gets any worse you should definitely see a doctor. The flu is serious this year.

Gina:   Yeah. You’re right. I’ll do that if I’m not feeling any better in the morning.

Michael:   Yeah, you ought to get checked out. In the meantime, how are you getting home? You probably shouldn’t drive.

Gina:   Oh, don’t worry. My sister’s giving me a ride home.

Michael:   OK, good. Let me know when you’re ready to leave, and I can walk out with you.

Gina:   That’s nice of you, but I’ll be OK. Ugh.

Michael:   What’s wrong? Do you feel dizzy again?

Gina:   No, no. I’m just thinking about work. I have so much going on that I can’t afford to get sick.

Michael:   Gina, seriously, take the time you need to get better. Forget about work for now.

Gina:   Yeah, you’re probably right.

Michael:   Besides, your work will be waiting for you when you get back.

Gina:   It won’t just be waiting for me. It’ll be piling up. Ugh…

C

Michael:   Hey, Gina. How’s it going? Oh, are you all right?

Gina:   Not really. For a second there, I felt a little dizzy.

Michael:   Uh-oh. Maybe you’d better take it easy for a few minutes. Is there anything I can get you? Water?

Gina:   No, that’s okay. I think I’m just coming down with something. This morning, I had a sore throat and a headache and now I’m feeling weak and a bit nauseous.

A

Answers may vary. Possible answer: Gina calls Michael to tell him that she is at the hospital with her sister, who hurt her ankle.

B

1   Michael fractured his ankle.

2   Michael had to wear a cast for nearly two months.

3   Gina is feeling a little better.

4   Gina isn’t going to work tomorrow. She wants to make sure she feels better and be around in case her sister needs anything.

A B

Michael:   Hi, Gina. What’s up?

Gina:   Hey, Michael. You’re not going to believe this, but I’m at the hospital right now. I thought I’d call and fill you in.

Michael:   Oh, no! What happened? Are you OK?

Gina:   No, no, it’s not me. It’s my sister, Rachel.

Michael:   Uh-oh. What happened to your sister?

Gina:   She fell on the stairs going up to my house and hurt her ankle. It looked really bad, so I brought her to the hospital right away.

Michael:   That’s terrible! Has she seen a doctor yet?

Gina:   Yeah, she had X-rays and the doctor told her it’s just sprained. It’s not fractured or broken.

Michael:   That’s good.

Gina:   He just said that she needs to stay off it as much as possible. He also recommended keeping it elevated and putting ice on it several times for the first couple of days.

Michael:   It doesn’t sound too serious then. I fractured my ankle a couple of years ago and I had to wear a cast for nearly two months.

Gina:   Yeah, the doctor said Rachel just needs to use crutches for a week.

Michael:   Good. And how about you? Are you feeling better?

Gina:   A little bit. I took some flu medicine.

Michael:   That’s good to hear. So, are you planning on coming in to work tomorrow?

Gina:   No, I’m going to take a sick day. I still have muscle aches and I feel really tired. I want to make sure I feel better, and I’d like to be around just in case my sister needs anything.

Michael:   Well, try to get some rest. Hope you feel better tomorrow.

Gina:   Thanks! I’d better go now. We’re leaving and I have to help my sister to the car. What a day!

C

Michael:   What happened to your sister?

Gina:   She fell on the stairs going up to my house and hurt her ankle. It looked really bad, so I brought her to the hospital right away.

Michael:   That’s terrible! Has she seen a doctor yet?

Gina:   Yeah, she had X-rays, and the doctor told her it’s just sprained. It’s not fractured or broken.

Michael:   That’s good.

Gina:   He just said that she needs to stay off it as much as possible.

A

Answers may vary. Possible answer: Microbes are everywhere and can be harmful or helpful.

B

Section 1: the history of our knowledge of microbes

Section 2: how some microbes are good for us

Section 3: how microbes can be good or bad for us

C

1   More than half the cells in the human body are microbes.

2   Edward Jenner developed the smallpox vaccine.

3   Microbes help babies digest milk.

4   Helpful bacteria can become harmful when they are in the wrong environment.

5   Scientists still want to learn how microbes interact with human cells and with each other and how we can improve our microbial populations with diet or medicine.

The Microbes Within

I hate to tell you this, but there are bacteria all over that chair you’re sitting in. Oh, don’t get up, don’t get up—they’re also in the air you’re breathing. And on your face, and in your stomach. Our bodies contain not only bacteria but also viruses and other microbes. Having viruses and bacteria living on you and inside you doesn’t mean you’re sick. It just means you’re part of the world we live in. Bacteria and viruses are actually part of us. In fact, more than half of the cells in the human body aren’t even human cells—they’re microbes. And we’re just beginning to learn what this means.

Now, we’ve known about the existence of microbes since the 1600s, when the first good microscopes were made. About two hundred years later, scientists began to make breakthroughs in understanding how microbes cause diseases and used these discoveries to fight them. Louis Pasteur developed a process for keeping milk safe by killing bacteria. Joseph Lister pioneered the use of antiseptics in surgery, and Edward Jenner developed a vaccine to fight the deadly smallpox virus. We came to view microbes as enemies that need to be destroyed before they destroy us, and that’s how many of us still view them. We use antimicrobial sprays to clean our kitchens and antimicrobial soap to wash our skin. We buy products that claim they kill 99% of all bacteria.

Near the end of the 20th century, however, we learned that microbes aren’t always bad for us. Sometimes they are very good for us. For example, the microbes that live in our guts help us digest food. As a matter of fact, human babies can only digest milk because of bacteria they get from their mothers. And some of the bacteria that live on our skin protect us from infection. There are viruses living inside of us that strengthen our immune systems and bacteria living in our mouths that keep our teeth clean.

Now, whether a microbe is helpful or harmful can depend on its environment. Those bacteria that are good for your mouth can make you sick if they get into your bloodstream. So now we understand that even though antibiotic drugs have saved millions of lives, we need to be careful about taking them because they kill the good bacteria along with the bad ones. And recent studies have shown that children who grow up in microbe-rich environments, for example, on a farm, may be healthier than children who grow up in more sterile environments. So, although we need to keep our houses clean, it may be important not to over-sanitize them.

Still, there’s a lot more we need to learn about microbes. The microbial populations in our bodies are as individual as we are, and new species of microbes are being discovered every day. Scientists have only started to understand how microbes interact not only with human cells but also with each other. With more study, scientists may one day learn how we can improve our microbial populations with diet and medicine. These are early days in this exciting field, and we don’t have a lot of definitive answers yet. But what we know for sure is that these tiny organisms play a hugely important role in our lives and health.

A

Answers may vary. Possible answer: The article is about how dogs can detect medical problems.

B

1   Dogs can detect cancer, changes in blood sugar, and harmful bacteria.

2   Dogs can detect these problems because they have an amazing sense of smell.

3   Researchers want to learn exactly how dogs detect medical problems.

4   Researchers would like to make an electronic device that can work just like a dog’s nose.

Could a Dog Save Your Life?

If a dog could talk, what would it say? Besides asking you for food and walks, it might also suggest that you visit your doctor, maybe just in time to save your life!

This was the case for one woman in England in 1989. Her dog kept sniff ng a mole, or brown spot, on her leg. The dog even tried to bite the mole off. Concerned, the woman went to see her doctor, who removed the mole and discovered that it was a melanoma, a deadly type of skin cancer.

Since then, researchers have determined that dogs can detect medical problems other than cancer, too. For example, dogs are able to notice changes in the blood sugar of people who have diabetes, giving these people more time to treat themselves before they have a seizure. Dogs can also locate dangerous bacteria in hospitals so that staff members have the chance to get rid of the bacteria before patients get sick.

Dogs clearly have an amazing ability to detect things, so what’s their secret? It’s their incredible sense of smell. Dogs have around 300 million smelling sensors, while we have just five or six million. This means that dogs can smell much better than we can, enabling them to notice small changes in our bodies and health that we can’t.

Because of this remarkable ability, researchers are eager to find out just how good dogs can be at detecting medical problems. So far, they have learned that there are several advantages to using dogs instead of other detection methods and devices. To begin with, dogs don’t make a lot of mistakes. In a study in England, a dog was able to identify cancer 95% of the time. Second, dogs work fast. A dog in the Netherlands checked an entire hospital ward for dangerous bacteria in just ten minutes. It would have taken scientists three to five days to do the same thing. Finally, dogs can make the detection process easier and less painful for patients. Who wouldn’t want to be checked by a friendly dog instead of going through a complicated and possibly painful test?

However, there are still some disadvantages to using medical detection dogs. For one thing, they are very expensive to train. It can cost tens of thousands of dollars to train just one dog. In addition, it takes a long time to train them. It took two years to train dogs that were used to detect cancer during a study in Japan. Furthermore, dogs aren’t always easy to work with. They aren’t machines, so they sometimes get tired and distracted, and they need rewards and breaks to keep them focused.

Because of these drawbacks, we might not see dogs in every hospital in the near future, but they could still help us improve our medical detection processes. Right now, researchers are trying to determine exactly how dogs can detect things like cancer and bacteria. If they can figure this out, they might be able to make an electronic device that could work just like a dog’s nose. Then we would still have dogs to thank when doctors warn us about a serious medical problem in advance.

A

Answers may vary. Possible answer: The presentation is about an app that can improve your health by developing better sleep habits.

B

1   The app is called GoToSleepNow.

2   It helps people sleep better.

3   The app has a bedtime reminder, an alarm clock, and a record of how much sleep you’re getting.

Getting enough sleep is really important for our health, but sometimes this is hard to do. Fortunately, developers have created an app called GoToSleepNow that makes getting the rest we need much easier.

This app has three features that can help you develop better sleep habits. To begin with, it sends you a bedtime reminder every night. This tells you exactly when to go to sleep, so you can get all the rest you need.

The second feature is what the app does in the morning. It has an alarm clock that wakes you up at just the right moment—that perfect time when you’ll feel most rested and alert.

To do this, the app relies on some information about how we sleep. Every night, we go through several sleep cycles. These last about 90 minutes each. During each cycle, we go through a light phase and a deep phase of sleep.

If something wakes us up when we’re in the deep phase, we still feel tired, and it’s hard to get out of bed. But if we wake up during the light phase, we feel more alert and ready to face the day.

To help the app know when you’re in the light phase of sleep, set your phone near your pillow at night. As you sleep, it will monitor how you move. This will let it know what phase of sleep you’re in. Then, it can wake you up at exactly the right time.

The last feature of this app is that it tracks how long you sleep. It will automatically use this information to create a graph of the number of hours you sleep each night. This way, you can easily see if you’re getting the right amount of sleep.

So, if you want to sleep better, use this app to get a bedtime reminder, an alarm in the morning, and a record of how much sleep you’re getting.

Thank you.