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READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40 which
are based on Reading Passage 3 below.
Knowledge in
medicine
A
What counts as knowledge? What do we mean when we say that
we know something? What is the status of different kinds of knowledge? In order
to explore these questions, we are going to focus on one particular area of
knowledge – medicine.
B
How do you know when you are ill? This may seem to be an
absurd question. You know you are ill because you feel ill; your body tells you
that you are ill. You may know that you feel pain or discomfort but knowing you
are ill is a bit more complex. At times, people experience the symptoms of
illness, but in fact, they are simply tired or over-worked or they may just
have a hangover. At other times, people may be suffering from a disease and
fail to be aware of the illness until it has reached a late stage in its
development. So how do we know we are ill, and what counts as knowledge?
C
Think about this example. You feel unwell. You have a bad
cough and always seem to be tired. Perhaps it could be stress at work, or maybe
you should give up smoking. You feel worse. You visit the doctor who listens to
your chest and heart, takes your temperature and blood pressure, and then
finally prescribes antibiotics for your cough.
D
Things do not improve but you struggle on thinking you
should pull yourself together, perhaps things will ease off at work soon. A
return visit to your doctor shocks you. This time the doctor, drawing on years
of training and experience, diagnoses pneumonia. This means that you will need
bed rest and a considerable time off work. The scenario is transformed. Although
you still have the same symptoms, you no longer think that these are caused by
pressure at work. You know have proof that you are ill. This is the result of
the combination of your own subjective experience and the diagnosis of someone
who has the status of a medical expert. You have a medically authenticated
diagnosis and it appears that you are seriously ill; you know you are ill and
have the evidence upon which to base this knowledge.
E
This scenario shows many different sources of knowledge. For
example, you decide to consult the doctor in the first place because you feel
unwell – this is personal knowledge about your own body. However, the doctor’s
expert diagnosis is based on experience and training, with sources of knowledge
as diverse as other experts, laboratory reports, medical textbooks and years of
experience.
F
One source of knowledge is the experience of our own bodies;
the personal knowledge we have of changes that might be significant, as well as
the subjective experiences are mediated by other forms of knowledge such as the
words we have available to describe our experience, and the common sense of our
families and friends as well as that drawn from popular culture. Over the past
decade, for example, Western culture has seen a significant emphasis on
stress-related illness in the media. Reference to being ‘stressed out’ has
become a common response in daily exchanges in the workplace and has become
part of popular common-sense knowledge. It is thus not surprising that we might
seek such an explanation of physical symptoms of discomfort.
G
We might also rely on the observations of others who know
us. Comments from friends and family such as ‘you do look ill’ or ‘that’s a bad
cough’ might be another source of knowledge. Complementary health practices,
such as holistic medicine, produce their own sets of knowledge upon which we
might also draw in deciding the nature and degree of our ill health and about
possible treatments.
H
Perhaps the most influential and authoritative source of
knowledge is the medical knowledge provided by the general practitioner. We
expect the doctor to have access to expert knowledge. This is socially
sanctioned. It would not be acceptable to notify our employer that we simply
felt too unwell to turn up for work or that our faith healer, astrologer,
therapist or even our priest thought it was not a good idea. We need an expert
medical diagnosis in order to obtain the necessary certificate if we need to be
off work for more than the statutory self-certification period. The knowledge
of the medical sciences is privileged in this respect in contemporary Western
culture. Medical practitioners are also seen as having the required expert
knowledge that permits them legally to prescribe drugs and treatment to which
patients would not otherwise have access. However, there is a range of
different knowledge upon which we draw when making decisions about our own
state of health.
I
However, there is more than existing knowledge in this
little story; new knowledge is constructed within it. Given the doctor’s
medical training and background, she may hypothesize ‘is this now pneumonia?’
and then proceed to look for evidence about it. She will use observations and
instruments to assess the evidence and – critically – interpret it in light of
her training and experience. This results in new knowledge and new experience
both for you and for the doctor. This will then be added to the doctor’s
medical knowledge and may help in the future diagnosis of pneumonia.
Questions 27-32
Complete the table
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the
passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 27-32 on
your answer sheet
|
Source of knowledge |
Examples |
|
Personal experience |
Symptoms of a 27………………………… and tiredness Doctor’s measurement by taking 28……………………………. and temperature Common judgment from 29…………………………… around you |
|
Scientific evidence |
Medical
knowledge from the general 30………………………. e.g. doctor’s
medical 31………………………… Examine the
medical hypothesis with the previous drill and 32……………………… |
Questions 33-40
The Reading Passage has nine paragraphs A-I
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter A-I, in boxes 33-40 on
your answer sheet.
33 the contrast between the nature of
personal judgment and the nature of doctor’s diagnosis
34 a reference of culture about pressure
35 sick leave will not be permitted
without the professional diagnosis
36 how doctors’ opinions are regarded in
society
37 the illness of patients can become
part of new knowledge
38 a description of knowledge drawn from
non-specialized sources other than personal knowledge
39 an example of collective judgment from
personal experience and professional doctor
40 a reference that some people do not
realize they are ill
ANSWER
27. bad cough
28. blood pressure
29. families and friends
30. Practitioner
31. Diagnosis
32. background
33. E
34. F
35. H
36. H
37. I
38. G
39. D
40. B
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