NEXT UP! 2 24 The nurse wiped my lips and washed my face with a wet flannel. Then they lifted me out of the chair and stood me on my feet. I felt a bit groggy. ‘We’ll get you home,’ my mother said, taking my hand. Down the stairs we went and on to the street. We started walking. I said walking. No trolley-car or taxi. We walked the full half-hour journey back to my grandparents’ house, and when we arrived at last, I can remember as clearly as anything my grandmother saying, ‘Let him sit down in that chair and rest for a while. After all, he’s had an operation.’ Someone placed a chair for me beside my grandmother’s armchair, and I sat down. My grandmother reached over and covered one of my hands in both of hers. ‘That won’t be the last time you’ll go to a doctor in your life,’ she said. ‘And with a bit of luck, they won’t do you too much harm.’ That was in 1924, and taking out a child’s adenoids, and often the tonsils as well, without any anaesthetic was common practice in those days. I wonder, though, what you would think if some doctor did that to you today. UNDERSTANDING 17 Work with the text a) This incident is something Roald Dahl remembers very clearly from his childhood. Why do you think that is? Write at least four sentences. b) What do you think the doctor should have done differently? Write an explanation and remember to give reasons for your opinion. c) Reread the last paragraph. What is different about going to the doctor in 1924, as Dahl describes it, and going to the doctor for a similar procedure today? Describe the differences. Useful words: anaesthetic, doctor, doctor’s surgery, communicate, explain a flannel – þvottaklútur groggy – máttlaus a trolley-car – sporvagn tonsils – hálskirtlar anaesthetic – svæfing/deyfing Hæfniviðmið • Lesið sér til fróðleiks rauntexta af fjöl- breyttum miðlum, brugðist við efni þeirra eða unnið úr þeim á annan hátt. • Skrifað lipran, sam- felldan texta af ólíkum gerðum í samræmi við inntak og tilgang með skrifunum.
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