Szóbeli tételek 7. - Health

7. EGÉSZSÉG, EGÉSZSÉGMEGŐRZÉS, SPORT

Fortunately I am in good health and I can’t remember the time that I was last ill. I try to take care of myself; you know good health above wealth the saying goes. Although, I sometimes crawl without socks at home. Many people neglect their health and get a bad cold easily when the rainy weather sets in.

When I was ill last time I had flu, strong headache and a sore throat. My nose was running and I was coughing and sneezing. I had a temperature of thirty-eight point five degrees. I also had a pain in my chest. In Hungary, you must register in by phone to the GP (General Practitioner) before you get there. Then the assistant gets you an appointment. When the nurse shouted ‘next please’, I entered the surgery room. The doctor told me to strip to the waist. He gave me a thorough medical check-up. He/she began by feeling my pulse and looks at my tongue. As my temperature was quite high he looked at my throat and said that it was badly inflamed. He also listened to my lungs, heart, breathing and took my blood pressure. After the through examination he diagnosed my illness and told me that I had all the symptoms of influenza. He sent me to the laboratory for a blood test and prescribed me some medicine (he made out a prescription) such as some anti-febrile to keep my fever down, some menthol drops for my nose and a mixture for my throat. I had to gargle every two hours. He told me I had to stay in bed for a few days and also told me to drink a lot of hot tea with lemon and keep warm. In the end I was put on the sick-list (the doctor made out a sickness certificate in my name for my company; health care benefit) and had to stay off work for a week. I went to the chemist’s where they made up the mixture and reminded me to shake it well before use. I also bought some pain-killers for my headache and took one pill three times a day after meals. I told my boss that I couldn’t work for a few days and he wished me a quick recovery. After following the doctor’s advice and taking the medicine in the prescribed way, I soon recovered from my illness.
In our climate, especially in autumn and late winter people often have health problems. They catch a cold or flu and those who don’t have enough resistance can contract pneumonia. Arthritis and rheumatism are also caused by cool and damp weather. The number of patients suffering from hay fever, allergies and respiratory problems such as bronchitis and asthma, is rising. Quinsy and appendicitis are very common with children as well as food poisoning and indigestion. A very upsetting tendency is that more and more people suffer from nervous breakdowns and have crack-ups due to the overwork and fatigue. In the most serious cases people end up in mental hospitals and never recover from their illness. Such diseases as the plague, cholera, small-pox, malaria, tuberculosis and many others were stamped out a long time ago. Children get vaccinations for small-pox and polio at a young age and are also given periodical medical check-ups at school. The diseases that seem to take the heaviest toll of human life are coronary heart diseases, circulatory disorders, cancer and the relatively new contagious AIDS, which spreads through sexual intercourse or blood transfusion. 
  Being very widespread in Hungary, smoking affects a lot of people. It is very harmful for you health, especially for your circulatory system, throat, windpipes and lungs. Alcoholism is even worse because one you have become dependent on alcohol it is extremely difficult to give up drinking. And alcohol will slowly but surely ruin not only your health, but also your family’s lives. Fortunately, drug addicts are still few and far between in this country but the problem is already present. We must do everything to prevent a large number of youngsters getting affected by drug-taking. To keep in good health we should first of all no join the rat-race of modern life. We should avoid stress and tension and do some exercise every day. It is important to breathe a bit of fresh air and not to sit inside from morning till night. We should try to avoid fatty meat and animal fats so as not to be overweight. Remember the saying, ‘An apple a day keeps the doctor away’.
Diseases: mumps, measles, chicken pox, whooping cough, dysentery, (diarrhoea), [as fit as a fiddle]
I was in hospital when I was a child. I had my tonsils removed. I think this is a very common reason for an operation even in adulthood. Most people, however, are operated on for appendicitis. Sometimes an emergency operation is needed. Before the operation the surgeons and the nurses dress in green, wash their hands and put on masks. You are put on a stretcher and taken to the operating theatre where you get local or general anaesthetics.
Fortunately, I have never broken any of my bones, but at once I sprained my knee and had to go hospital for an X-ray. If a young person’s bone is broken, it will set quickly but he will have to have it in plaster for a time, too. If it is his leg that is broken he will naturally have to go round on crutches until the plaster comes off. Once the plaster comes off, he will still have to rest it and walk as a little as possible.
Of course, not only should you visit the dentist when one of your teeth is aching but you should go for a regular check-up at least once a year. It is very important to brush your teeth at least three times a day particularly after meals to protect your denture or your mouth against getting worse or foul breath. After I’ve been comfortably seated in the dentist’s chair he asks me which tooth is troubling me. He makes me open my mouth and begins probing for cavities. When he finds one, he gives you an injection and reaches for the drill. After drilling I am allowed to rinse my mouth. The dentist then stops the cavity and asks me not to chew for an hour or two. If the aching tooth is too far gone the dentist will pull it out. Before the extraction he anaesthetises your nerves with an injection given in your gum so the pain that you actually feel is quite bearable.
In Hungary the whole system of health care is undergoing a change at present. The Health Minister was resigned. Besides, there are a lot of problems in the health care. A round fee has been introduced recently, but it was cancelled by a referendum. We had to pay three hundred forints to the GP and more fees for staying in hospital. The medical services are substantially financed by a state budget on one hand. However you pay a monthly contribution from your salary but you don’t pay for the actual treatment. Medical centres provide service free of charge but there are, of course, private practitioners and even some private policlinics that charge for visits. Everyone can choose their GP freely and go to the one whom they trust most.  Surgeries are open four hours a day treating patients who are mobile. People on sick leave get seventy five percent of their salary. With some countries Hungary has an agreement and so when you are abroad as a tourist you don’t have to pay for health care or if you have to, the insurance company will pay it back to you. But you shouldn’t forget to take out a policy before the journey.
I am not particularly interested in sports and I’m not involved in any regular sports activity. In fact I like riding a bike, I can get somewhere really quickly and it contributes a lot to the healthy way of living, I think. Unfortunately, I can’t bring myself to do physical jerks every morning. I used to do some push-ups and I could do a few ones with one hand too, but nowadays I always fail after the fifth even with my two hands. I sometimes go swimming with my friends to the local swimming pool. Sport helps you to keep fit and preserve your health. Quite a few of my colleagues and friends are involved in regular sports activities. They mainly play ball games such as perhaps the well-known one football and handball for a team or only for hobby. We have a lot of opportunities to pursue sports in our town, you just have to be determined and find time for it. There are two green football-fields, a lot of smaller soccer grounds, a swimming pool, some tennis courts, a few fitness-wellness-clubs. We had two or three P.E. (Psychical Education) lessons a week at school, if I remember well. It was so pleasing to move your muscles after sitting for long hours at the school desk and going numb. When the weather was bad, we did some gymnastics in the gym, and if it was nice, however, we played outdoor games in the football field or run on the tracks around it. At the beginning of the lessons we always did some warming-up exercises.
 In international competitions there are six gymnastics exercises for men, and these are: high bars, parallel bars, rings, pommel-horse, vault and floor exercises. The four-exercises for women are vault, beam, uneven parallel bars and floor exercises again. Athletics includes all kinds of track and field events. The track events are running in different distances, hurdles, and steeple chase; the field events comprise hammer, discus, and javelin throwing as well as like pole vaulting, high jumping, long jumping or hop-skip-and-jump. The basic winter sports are skiing, including ski-jumping, slalom racing, downhill and cross country skiing, skating. I have never pursued winter sports, but there is a quite slippery steep slope not far from our place in the Parkerdő where we can toboggan freely in winter. I can’t skate or ski so all I can do is watch the competitions on TV. Slalom racing and ice dancing are my favourite. I love watching their great speed and swift movements. In fact all winter sports are spectacular. Aquatic sports include all sports done in or on water. Water-polo, high diving, diving, swimming, rowing, sailing, wind-surfing, water-skiing are all aquatic sports. There are different strokes in swimming e.g. breaststroke, crawl…
The Olympic 2008:  It is a big sport event that is held every four year. It will be held this summer, in Beijing, the capital of China. The competitors will be playing against each other in 28 branches, but some of them will be held in other towns. A lot of Hungarian admirers are said to travel to cheer. A sportsman can play much more if he is encouraged or hailed, I think. Hungarians are really good at swimming e.g. Gergő Kis or László Cseh is expected to win a few gold medals or at least to be on the foot-plate. Anyway, Gergő lives in Ajka thus we are very proud of him. In fact we used to excel at swimming because we had e.g. Krisztina Egerszegi and Tamás Darnyi who seemed to be by far the best all over the world both in the Olympic Games and the World Championship for years. They broke lots of records mostly they were unbeatable in backstroke and crawl stroke (freestyle) despite coming from our small country. We are also good at rowing, boxing, pentathlon and particularly men water-polo. In the Olympics we usually win at least two or three gold, silver or bronze medals. We used to excel in table tennis and football, but we aren’t quite good at them any more. I can’t wait to watch the events on telly, because they are really exciting and of course I adore win, too. Unfortunately, the games may be disturbed by the politics, because there were quite lot demonstrations because of the communism and around the torch. 
I am not much of a football fan because I think football is in a mess in Hungary. Besides, I say that it is better to watch football matches on telly because that way you can definitely avoid the occasional fights on the terraces. I go off it (lose interest in) when I watch on TV some fans breaking and crashing anything that get their way. After some matches shop windows near the grounds are smashed up and even the police are attacked by them. We should build more protective fences or barriers to stop fans fighting each other or others. Most Hungarian teams are extremely weak and whenever there is a championship they never get further than the qualifying heats. Other countries’ selected teams easily knock them out. Sometimes they manage to draw, but in the most cases they are defeated by two or more goals. Football: There are two teams, each consisting of ten players and a goalkeeper, who play each other on a pitch. No player, but the goalkeeper handle the ball, but heading is allowed. The forwards try to out-manoeuvre the opponents and get close enough to the goal kick the ball on it. If it happens, it means a goal and the team leads by one goal to nil (1:0). The game is governed by rules which must be strictly observed. A referee is assisted by two linesmen. The referee can award a free kick or a penalty if there is foul play. He may even send a player off the field for a grave offence. The team that scores more goals wins the match. The goal scorer, usually the top player, is feted as a hero.
Classification of sports:
Professional sports/amateur sports
Outdoor/indoor sports
Winter sports/summer sports
Team sports/individual sports
Water sports/athletics/ball games/
Enumeration: soccer, handball, basketball, volleyball, spinning, swimming, tennis, table tennis, track and field events, hurdles, steeple chase, javelin throwing, pole vaulting, slalom racing, cross-country skiing, bob-sleighing, figure skating, aquatics, high diving, rowing, breaststroke, crawl (freestyle), butterfly stroke, backstroke, fencing, pentathlon, motor racing, hockey, floor exercises, parachuting, equestrian sports, weightlifting, wrestling, boxing, shooting and archery, chess
Typical English Sports: cricket, rugby, soccer, golf, tennis, darts

epidemic-járvány
to feel dizzy-szédül
to get vaccinations-oltást kap vmi ellen
fracture-törés
ankle-boka