English Vocabulary in Use Upper-intermediate » Unit 29: Medicine and technology

Word List
  • advance
  • artificial hip
  • automatically
  • blood pressure
  • contact lens
  • crutches
  • database
  • decade
  • development
  • device
  • diagnose
  • difficulty
  • disease
  • early stage
  • general anaesthetic
  • hearing aid
  • highly
  • identify
  • laser surgery
  • manufacture
  • medical
  • operate on
  • pacemaker
  • prosthetic
  • rapid
  • robotic
  • scanner
  • sophisticated
  • spectacles
  • stress
  • stressful
  • thermometer
  • tool
  • treat
  • vast
  • vision
  • X-ray
Exercises

29.1 ‣ Look at A opposite and answer the questions about medical technology.

  1. What did Arab scientists probably invent? (two answers, one more formal)
  2. What began to be used in 1896 to enable doctors to take photographs of the inside of people's bodies? _____
  3. How did the ancient Egyptians help disabled people to walk? _____
  4. What alternative to glasses became popular in the 1960s and 1970s? _____
  5. How could disabled people move around as early as 1500 to 1600? _____

29.2 ‣ Rewrite the words in bold using words from A and B opposite.

  1. Medical scanners are made at this factory.
  2. Glasses were invented to correct problems _____ with eyesight _____.
  3. Technology for medicine _____ has made very fast progress _____ in the last ten years _____.
  4. There is a now a large number _____ of things _____ that make life better for people with medical problems.
  5. Copies of natural _____ hips are very _____ efficient.
  6. Some disabled athletes can run as fast as able-bodied ones using _____ legs.
  7. Scientists are working on _____ arms that can be controlled directly by the person’s brain.

29.3 ‣ Using words from the opposite page, say what each object is for.



  2. _____

  3. _____

  4. _____

  5. _____

  6. _____

29.4 ‣ Complete the missing words. You are given the first letter(s). A preposition is missing in sentence 3. Add it.

  1. Doctors will be able to i diseases at an early s_____ in the future using sophisticated sc_____.
  2. Doctors will be able to d_____ a patient's illness from a distance. Patients will send information a_____ to their doctor.
  3. K_____ s_____ means doctors no longer need to open a patient's body when they operate them.
  4. Information on large computer d_____ will help doctors t_____ diseases and give them new t_____ to cure illnesses.

29.5 ‣

Over to you

Have you used or experienced any of the examples of medical technology mentioned in this unit? How? When? Write true sentences.
Answer Key
A ‣ A history of health technology

Ancient EgyptThe earliest crutches were in use.
Middle AgesSpectacles1, probably invented by Arab scientists, were used to correct vision2.
1500-1600The first wheelchairs were developed.
1800-19001804: the first general anaesthetic3 was used in an operation in Japan.
1896: X-rays4 were first used in medicine.
1960-1970The first contact lenses5 were manufactured6.

1 a more formal word for glasses
2 the ability to see
3 something used to make you unconscious when you have an operation, so that you do not feel any pain
4 a type of radiation that makes possible photographs of hidden objects such as bones and organs in the body
5 a small piece of transparent plastic which is worn on the surface of your eye to improve your sight
6 made in large numbers, usually in a factory

B ‣ The present day

Medical technology has made rapid1 advances2 in recent decades3. Nowadays, a vast4 range of devices5 is available: people with hearing difficulties wear sophisticated6 hearing aids7; people with heart problems wear tiny pacemakers8. Artificial9 hips10 and knees are common, and are highly11 efficient. People who have lost an arm or a leg can have a prosthetic12  leg or a modern robotic13 arm and hand, which they can use to pick things up like a natural hand. Eyesight problems can be corrected by laser surgery14.

1 very fast
2 improvements or developments
3 a period of 10 years
4 very wide
5 object or machine made for a particular purpose
6 clever in a complicated way and able to do complicated tasks
7 a small device put inside someone's ear to help them hear better
8 a small device put inside someone's chest to help their heart beat correctly
9 not natural, a copy made by humans
10 the joint which connects the leg to the upper part of the body
11 very (more formal)
12 made to replace a missing arm or leg
13 able to be controlled and moved by the user
14 medical operations using powerful narrow beams of light

C ‣ The future

A recent TV documentary predicted the following developments in medical technology.

  1. Scanners which can identify health problems at an early stage1 will become more and more sophisticated.
  2. Diagnosing2 illnesses from a distance. Patients will sit at their home computers, describe their symptoms and send information automatically to their doctor (for example, their blood pressure3 or body temperature) using instruments such as thermometers connected to their computer.
  3. Computers and huge databases will provide doctors with more and more information and the tools4 to treat diseases.
  4. Keyhole surgery5 will become more common. It will not be necessary to cut open a person's body to operate on them.

1 during the first period of development
2 name the exact character of a disease or a problem, by exammmg it
3 measure of the strength at which the blood flows through the body
4 something that helps you do something
5 medical operations in which a very small hole is made in a person's body to reach the organ or tissue inside

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