Taxi Language/Dialogue 10

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Dialogue 10: The hospital

A disease

Dialogue 10

1	DOCTOR	Patient’s name and surname?
2	MAX	Anna Constantinescu.
3	DOCTOR	Can you spell the surname, please?
4	MAX	C O N S T A N T I N E S C U.
5	DOCTOR	Are you her husband?
6	MAX	Well... I... How can I tell you...yes...yes... I’m her husband.
7	DOCTOR	Then, I inform you that your wife has had a heart attack. Now she’s in a stable condition. Fortunately, the ambulance arrived just in time. You’d better take care of her. Is there any family history involving heart diseases? The mother? The father?
8	MAX	Well...In the family well...I...mmm...Yes yes...Her mother had a similar disease.
9	DOCTOR	I suspected as much. Do you eat a lot of fried food at home?
11	MAX	Yes...too many, I always tell her: Anna, don’t cook so much fried food, but she loves it! You know. She doesn’t listen to me.
12	DOCTOR	Then, fried food is over. From now on, only salads.
13	MAX	Don’t worry, doctor. We’ll do as you say. We’ll be strict.
14	DOCTOR	Very good, I like that.
15	DOCTOR	How old is Anna?
16	MAX	She is...is...31, doctor.
17	DOCTOR	This girl is too young to suffer this illness.
18	DOCTOR	Date of birth?
19	MAX	April, the seventh...1984.
20	DOCTOR	April, the seventh, nineteen eighty-four...But, listen, that would mean she is 32.
21	MAX	Oh yes, yes, thirty-two, I’m so absent-minded.
22	ANNA	mmm uhhh... mmmm.
23	DOCTOR	She seems to have recovered her consciousness. Kiss her, man! Love always helps ill people! It’s scientifically proven!
24	MAX	Don’t you think it’s too early, doctor?
25	DOCTOR	She’s had a heart attack, not a respiratory insufficiency!
26	NURSE	Doctor...
27	DOCTOR	I’ve told you many times not to interrupt me while I’m visiting my patients.
28	NURSE	It’s a phone call from the police. Is this patient Anna Constantinescu?
29	DOCTOR	Yes, she is. What’s the matter?
30	NURSE	Anna’s son, who’s only 9, has reported to the police that his mother is missing.
31	DOCTOR	If you’ve forgotten your son, you’re not only absent-minded. You really have a serious memory problem.

Text

Max's text 10

When the doctor asks Max if he is Anna’s husband, he doesn’t know what to say. To make things easier, he says he is. But the conversation is getting more and more difficult. Max has got himself in a mess.

Anna's text 10

Anna has had a heart attack. Thanks to the quick intervention of the ambulance, she hasn’t died. Heart attacks are very dangerous and they kill many people each year. The best way to avoid a heart attack is eating a lot of fruit and vegetables, doing a moderate amount of exercise , sleeping well, avoiding stress and not abusing alcohol.

Vocabulary

Max's vocabulary

Doctors wear white coats.

The doctor asks many questions. Too many questions. Max doesn’t know what to answer.

The doctor is an old man. He’s bold, he's only got some white hair behind his ears. He must be about sixty. Surely, he will retire soon.

Anna's vocabulary

Anna is lying on the bed.

Max fears the moment when Anna wakes up.

Humans kiss to show we love each other.

When humans make love, we must protect ourselves to avoid diseases and unwanted pregnancy.

The police has phoned the hospital. They’re looking for Anna.

Song

Artist: Bruce Springsteen
Title: The River
Link: Song
Lyrics: Interesting words are highlighted with bold letters

The River

I come from down in the valley
where mister when you're young
They bring you up to do like your daddy done
Me and Mary we met in high school
when she was just seventeen
We'd ride out of this valley down to where the fields were green

We'd go down to the river
And into the river we'd dive
Oh down to the river we'd ride

Then I got Mary pregnant
and man that was all she wrote
And for my nineteenth birthday I got a union card and a wedding coat
We went down to the courthouse
and the judge put it all to rest
No wedding day smiles no walk down the aisle
No flowers no wedding dress

That night we went down to the river
And into the river we'd dive
Oh down to the river we did ride

I got a job working construction for the Johnstown Company
But lately there ain't been much work on account of the economy
Now all them things that seemed so important
Well mister they vanished right into the air
Now I just act like I don't remember
Mary acts like she don't care

But I remember us riding in my brother's car
Her body tan and wet down at the reservoir
At night on them banks I'd lie awake
And pull her close just to feel each breath she'd take
Now those memories come back to haunt me
they haunt me like a curse
Is a dream a lie if it don't come true
Or is it something worse
that sends me down to the river
though I know the river is dry
That sends me down to the river tonight
Down to the river
my baby and I
Oh down to the river we ride

Execrcises

1 Max ____ to the doctor about being Anna's husband.

	lies
	lie
	lying

2 Max says that Anna's mother had a similar...

	hairstyle
	disease
	house

3 Anna survived the ________ thanks to the rapid response of the ambulance.

	stroke
	car accident
	heart attack

4 If it ____ for the stressful situation that Max ____ caused, Anna wouldn't ____ had a heart attack.

	was,has,had
	weren't, had, have
	hadn't been,was, has

5 Anna is 31 years old.

	true
	false

6 Euclidi, who is only _ years old, reported her mother to be missing.

	11
	7
	9