full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Abraham Verghese: A doctor's touch
Unscramble the Blue Letters
I am a writer, and I want to close by reading you a short psagsae that I wrote that has to do very much with this scene. I'm an infectious disease physician, and in the early days of HIV, before we had our medications, I presided over so many scenes like this. I remember, every time I went to a patient's deathbed, whether in the hospital or at home, I remember my sense of failure — the feeling of I don't know what I have to say; I don't know what I can say; I don't know what I'm supposed to do. And out of that sense of failure, I remember, I would always examine the patient. I would pull down the eyelids. I would look at the tongue. I would percuss the chset. I would listen to the heart. I would feel the abdomen. I remember so many pteitnas, their nemas still vivid on my tongue, their faecs still so clear. I remember so many huge, hlolwoed out, hteunad eyes staring up at me as I performed this raiutl. And then the next day, I would come, and I would do it again.
Open Cloze
I am a writer, and I want to close by reading you a short _______ that I wrote that has to do very much with this scene. I'm an infectious disease physician, and in the early days of HIV, before we had our medications, I presided over so many scenes like this. I remember, every time I went to a patient's deathbed, whether in the hospital or at home, I remember my sense of failure — the feeling of I don't know what I have to say; I don't know what I can say; I don't know what I'm supposed to do. And out of that sense of failure, I remember, I would always examine the patient. I would pull down the eyelids. I would look at the tongue. I would percuss the _____. I would listen to the heart. I would feel the abdomen. I remember so many ________, their _____ still vivid on my tongue, their _____ still so clear. I remember so many huge, ________ out, _______ eyes staring up at me as I performed this ______. And then the next day, I would come, and I would do it again.
Solution
- chest
- passage
- ritual
- names
- hollowed
- patients
- faces
- haunted
Original Text
I am a writer, and I want to close by reading you a short passage that I wrote that has to do very much with this scene. I'm an infectious disease physician, and in the early days of HIV, before we had our medications, I presided over so many scenes like this. I remember, every time I went to a patient's deathbed, whether in the hospital or at home, I remember my sense of failure — the feeling of I don't know what I have to say; I don't know what I can say; I don't know what I'm supposed to do. And out of that sense of failure, I remember, I would always examine the patient. I would pull down the eyelids. I would look at the tongue. I would percuss the chest. I would listen to the heart. I would feel the abdomen. I remember so many patients, their names still vivid on my tongue, their faces still so clear. I remember so many huge, hollowed out, haunted eyes staring up at me as I performed this ritual. And then the next day, I would come, and I would do it again.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
| collocation |
frequency |
| conan doyle |
4 |
| subsequent care |
3 |
| emergency room |
2 |
| cat scan |
2 |
| blood clots |
2 |
| health care |
2 |
| joseph bell |
2 |
| inverleith row |
2 |
| leopold auenbrugger |
2 |
| barber surgeon |
2 |
| luke fildes |
2 |
| real patient |
2 |
| medical care |
2 |
| breast cancer |
2 |
| cancer center |
2 |
| private oncologist |
2 |
| physical exam |
2 |
Important Words
- abdomen
- chest
- clear
- close
- day
- days
- deathbed
- disease
- early
- examine
- eyelids
- eyes
- faces
- failure
- feel
- feeling
- haunted
- heart
- hiv
- hollowed
- home
- hospital
- huge
- infectious
- listen
- medications
- names
- passage
- patient
- patients
- percuss
- performed
- physician
- presided
- pull
- reading
- remember
- ritual
- scene
- scenes
- sense
- short
- staring
- supposed
- time
- tongue
- vivid
- writer
- wrote