People today expect to be examined when they enter a doctor's office. At least they expect their blood pressure and temperature to be measured. However, as recently as two hundred years ago, a doctor's treatment depended on talking with patients. In general, the communication between doctors and their patients was the most important part of medical methods. The modem¹ age of medicine began with the stethoscope ,an instrmnent for listening to patients heartbeat and breathing. Before that, a doctor did not touch a patient. In fact,there was no such things as a medical examination².

The stethoscope──and all other medical instruments──-had a serious effect, on the practice of medicine. Doctors became better at finding³ the medical problems. More lives were saved. At the same time, doctors gave less importance to the communication between patients and doctors. Some doctors actually stopped talking to their patients. It is easy to understand why some sick people thought themselves as broken machines.

1. A stethoscope can be used to________.

A. check health conditions B. cure some illness

C. measure temperature D. treat heart disease⁴

2. Doctors gave less importance to the communication between patients and doctors mainly because________.

A. modern medical instruments were used

B. they could cure more diseases⁵ and save more lives

C. they had much more medical experience than before

D. they were too busy to have time to talk with patients

3. Some sick people thought of themselves as broken machines, which suggested that_______.

A. modern doctors should treat their patients as machines

B. the level of the treatment was greatly improved

C. they thought they were useless just like broken machines

D. they were not satisfied⁶ with the manner in which doctors treated them

4. The best title for this passage should be________.

A. Medical Methods of Two Hundred Years Ago

B. The Development of Medical Methods

C. The Modem Age of Medicine

D. The Use of the Stethoscope

Keys: 1-4 AADB