درسنامه واژه ها

Health Experts – Vocabulary Lesson

Hi, this is Kristin Dodds, one of the teachers and directors of Learn Real English. Welcome to this month’s vocabulary lesson for the conversation Health Experts. I have the text of the conversation here and I made some notes about some words or groups of words that you may have had difficulty understanding. So I’ll be explaining those as they relate to this conversation.

And as I always do, let’s talk about three words that you hear a lot in many of our conversations. The first word is like. Like, as you probably know, means to have positive feelings for someone or something. But many times you’ll hear it in our conversations and it doesn’t really have a meaning. So it’s just a filler word. It has no meaning in many instances or many times.

Another word is y’know. Y’know. So it’s actually two words, you and know, combined together. Just sometimes when we’re speaking fast it ends up sounding like one word. Instead of saying you know, we might say y’know. The third word is yeah. Yeah is a slang word for yes. Okay, so let’s begin.

AJ says at the very beginning of the conversation, oh, actually let me say, I want to explain what experts means. So for the title, Health Experts. An expert is someone who has a lot of knowledge or skill in a particular area.

Okay, so in the very beginning of the conversation, AJ says, “I just sent you that article about the woman who wrote the book about thyroid problems.” So thyroid: this is a part, we all have our thyroids. So if you were to open me up, my thyroid would be right here at the bottom of my neck, right here. So this is where the thyroid is. And what the thyroid does is it helps to control growth and development in the body.

And then AJ says, “What struck me about the article was how much this poor woman went through over years and years, I mean over a decade I’d say, struggling with a thyroid issue.” Okay, so there’s three things in this sentence I want to explain. The first one is what struck me. So when AJ says what struck me, what he’s saying is what he found interesting, what interested him in the article. So what struck me, what was interesting to me about the article. And then when he says a decade, a decade is 10 years, so over a decade means more than 10 years. And then when AJ says struggling with a thyroid issue, struggling means having difficulty dealing with.

And then AJ says, “Nobody seemed terribly interested.” So when he says terribly interested that means not interested at all.

And then AJ says, “It was just a nightmare until she really took charge.” So nightmare here means a bad situation. And when he says until she really took charge, to take charge means to take control.

And then AJ says, “That’s what she had to do in order to figure out the cure for herself.” So cure means relief of the thyroid symptoms.

And then I say, “I’ve gone to a naturopath and now I’m going to an acupuncturist.” So a naturopath: this is a type of doctor, a naturopathic doctor. It’s a type of doctor. It’s not a traditional doctor. They deal with alternative ways of helping people when they are sick or have some kind of problem. So they could maybe, maybe they’ve been trained to do body work like massage. Or maybe they’ve been trained in acupuncture, and I’m going to explain what acupuncture is in just a second. Maybe they have great knowledge, a lot of knowledge dealing with herbs, y’know, dried plants that can help with certain conditions. Or they have knowledge of many different supplements, supplements meaning different pills, natural pills that can help with different conditions. So they’re different from a traditional doctor in that they’re not going to recommend particular medicines like antibiotics, which traditional doctors recommend a lot. And an acupuncturist: acupuncture come from traditional Chinese medicine and it is someone who has been trained to insert or put needles into the body at certain points that helps to get your energy moving. Because the idea is if your energy is blocked in certain areas it can create problems.

Then AJ says, “It can be fairly complex, especially when you start getting into issues like this, thyroid issues, diabetes.” So complex means complicated, not simple. And diabetes: this is a condition where the body can’t keep a healthy level of sugar in the blood. So the sugar is the main source of energy that our bodies need.

And then AJ says, “I think it just points to that in anything in your life that’s important, you can’t surrender your responsibility to experts.” I think it just points to, points to means proves. So I think it just proves. And then when AJ says you can’t surrender, surrender means give, you can’t give your responsibility to experts.

Okay, then I say, “My fibroids.” So fibroids: these are tumors. A tumor is a growth which is not a normal growth inside of your body. And fibroids, so they’re tumors, they’re these growths and they grow inside a woman’s uterus. The uterus is where a baby grows before the woman has…delivers the baby, has the baby. So they grow, fibroids grow inside the uterus.

And then I say, “Kept kind of getting shuffled through the system.” So what I mean by that is I kept going to the doctor and they didn’t really know what to tell me, what was going on. They would just make these guesses, give me some medicine that wasn’t helping. Finally, they recommended that I have a test done to have a look inside to see what was really happening to me. So getting shuffled through the system

means just going back to the doctor many times but nothing was ever helping me. There was no action being taken to help me.

And then I say, “I didn’t have health insurance at that time, I was going to health centers.” So health insurance: here in the United States this is something that every person is now supposed to have. You pay money, a certain amount of money, depends on how much money you make from your job, you pay to a health insurance company every month and if something happens to you like, for example, if you were to be in a car accident and you had to go to the hospital, your insurance then will help to pay for the hospital costs. Because going to the hospital in the United States is very expensive. Going to the doctor in the United States is very expensive. So also if you’re sick and you decide you want to go to the doctor or you have some kind of problem, physical problem and you have to go to the doctor, depending on the type of insurance you have, it can help to pay part of the doctor fee or cost. And then health centers: these, before when people didn’t have to pay for insurance, there were health centers, and we still have these here in the United States, that they offer cheaper…you go to a health center and it costs less than if you were to go to a hospital. So they’re really designed for people who make less money. So because I didn’t have health insurance to help me pay for the costs of going to a doctor or going to the hospital, I would go to health centers because they were cheaper and I could pay for them and it wasn’t…it wasn’t too expensive. I could afford to pay.

Alright, then I say, “To have me go to the hospital to have a test…a sonogram.” So a sonogram: this is a particular kind of test and it’s, the machine is…you take a part of the machine and you put it on your body, wherever you’re trying to see inside of your body. So, for example, for me for the fibroids, a part of the machine was put over where my uterus is, which is just below my stomach. And then on a screen, like a computer screen, you can see an image or a picture of what’s inside of my body right there. And that’s when they saw these growths or these tumors growing, the fibroids. So that’s a sonogram. It’s a particular test or, y’know, it’s the machine that’s used, the equipment that’s used to run this test.

And then AJ says, “Yeah, to test for that.” So when he says to test for that, he’s talking about having a test done to see if I had fibroids.

And then AJ says, “So your mom basically diagnosed you.” So diagnosed: this means figured out what the issue was. My mom figured out what the issue was with me or the problem.

And then I say, “He went to the emergency room.” So the emergency room: this is a part of a hospital where you go if you have an emergency. An emergency is something that needs to be taken care of right away. So if I’m in a car accident and I’m driven, let’s say, people from the hospital come in what we call

an ambulance, it’s like a vehicle, it’s like a, kind of like a, it’s a big car basically, where people from the hospital are driving and they would come get me and put me inside, drive me to the hospital. The whole time they’re flashing lights and there’s a sound so that people know, who are driving, to move to the side of the road. This is an emergency. An emergency means something’s happening that needs to be dealt with right away. So the emergency room is a part of the hospital that’s set up to…so that doctors are there to see someone right away, because if they don’t they could possibly die. It’s almost like a life or death type situation.

And then AJ says, “So many people are kind of brainwashed to just trust the experts.” So brainwashed means influenced.

And then AJ says, “I’m just astounded by how many people want to be kind of passive.” So astounded means greatly surprised and passive means inactive, not active.

And then AJ says, “That’s what most teachers are, they’re just government employees, bureaucrats.” So a bureaucrat: that’s another name for a government employee.

And then AJ says, “You’ve got to step in. You’ve got to be in charge.” So when he says you’ve got to step in, he’s saying you’ve got to become more active. And you’ve got to be in charge, this means, he’s saying you’ve got to take control.

And then I say, “I can imagine something complex, like my thyroid, that is probably overwhelming for her.” So overwhelming means too much to deal with.

And then AJ says, “They just can’t spend tons of time on every unique case.” So tons means a lot, tons of time, a lot of time. And unique case means a different, different situation, different situation from other situations that might be more similar or more alike.

And then AJ says, “I’ll go to a counselor, like a relationship counselor, and they’ll figure out and solve the problem.” And then a little bit later AJ says, “Some psychologists or psychiatrists, they’re not going to do it.” So a counselor, a psychologist, a psychiatrist: these are all three professionals. They’ve gone to school for different length of time, possibly, and they do different things but one thing that they have in common is that they help people who are having problems say with their marriage. They’ll talk to them, let the person talk about their problems, and give them guidance or advice or suggestions. They could be dealing with people who are having problems with their marriage, people who are having problems with their jobs, whatever, they’re having some kind of problem that’s bothering them mentally. Y’know, it’s

making them emotionally upset and they will help them. So all three, counselor, psychologist, psychiatrist, they have that in common.

And then AJ says, “She finally figured out what worked for her case.” So case here means situation.

And then AJ says, “But then you’ve got to start experimenting with yourself as safely as you can until you find what works for you.” So when he says experimenting, he’s saying trying different things.

Okay, this is the end of our vocabulary lesson for the conversation Health Experts and I will be right back with the commentary.