· 50 lists · 1697 words
Health and the body
What is said when it is your own body at stake.
What holds these lists together
These lists follow the same path at many points — at the pharmacy counter, in the dentist’s chair, in front of the slit lamp, on the ward. Almost all their words are built from Latin and Greek, which makes them look deceptively easy to an English speaker, who shares the roots. Une ordonnance is a prescription, le cabinet is the doctor’s surgery, and at the dentist la fraise is not a strawberry but the drill. Read in their everyday sense, they give you the sentence and not the matter. What joins them is the moment you need them: you first hear them as the patient, when you are least able to ask.
The 50 lists
C1At the pharmacyPrescription, active ingredient, dosage, contraindication — and the duty pharmacy on a Sunday.40 wordsC1At the dentistDecay, root, crown, splint — and the treatment estimate you understand before you agree to it.40 wordsC1OphthalmologyShort-sighted, long-sighted, dioptres, retina — and who does what.40 wordsC1PhysiotherapyPulled muscles, discs, movement, strengthening — the language of the practice and of the prescription.40 wordsC1Emergency medical servicesThe emergency call, cardiac arrest, bleeding, positioning — and the order in which things are done.40 wordsC1Laboratory medicineBlood count, reference range, culture, report — the sheet you hold in your hand in front of the doctor.40 wordsB1At the doctor and the chemistThe appointment, the symptoms, the prescription.34 wordsB1Emergencies and safetyThe number, the exit, the statement.32 wordsB1Falling ill and getting betterThe note, the test, the course of treatment.44 wordsB1Health and medicineThe practice, the ward, the prescription.31 wordsB2Old age and careThe words nobody learns until the day they are needed.33 wordsB2Hospital and diagnosisWhat is said in hospital, and what it means.59 wordsC1Birth and MidwiferyFrom antenatal care to the first weeks, in the words that are used on the ward.40 wordsC2The immune system and infectionDefence, vaccination, outbreak — and what one figure actually means.39 wordsC2Psychiatry and the clinical findingsDescribing before interpreting — the words a report is written in.28 wordsC2EndocrinologyMessengers, feedback loops, and what happens when one of them tips.35 wordsC2Hospital hygieneThe infections that begin inside the building itself.34 wordsC2RadiologyWhat an image shows, what it does not show, and who decides that.35 wordsC2GeriatricsThe branch of medicine in which the diagnosis almost never comes alone.21 wordsC2DermatologyThe organ you look at before you ask it anything.35 wordsC2Cosmetic chemistryWhat goes into a cream, and what the law has to say about it.24 wordsC2Medicines and trialsWhat a licence, a leaflet and a study each undertake to say.58 wordsC2OncologyFindings, stage, treatment, course — and the words used for all of it.42 wordsC2GastroenterologyNine metres of tube that almost every speciality earns a living from.36 wordsC2ToxicologyHow much, by which route, and how it leaves the body.25 wordsC2VaccinesHow an immune response is planned, tested and approved.22 wordsC2MicrobiologyCulture, resistance, biofilm — life below the threshold of sight.42 wordsC2Respiratory medicineWhat a chest sounds like, and what the machine makes of it.34 wordsC2RheumatologyJoints, vessels, connective tissue — and why the weeks decide it.34 wordsC2History of medicineHow an art turned into a discipline.25 wordsC2Ear, nose and throat medicineThree organs joined to each other by the same spaces.29 wordsC2Transplant medicineOne organ, two people and a window of time that closes quickly.22 wordsC1Veterinary medicineA history with no words, a herd instead of a person, an owner instead of a patient.40 wordsC2Infectious diseasesOrganisms, defences, and the question of when to give nothing.22 wordsC2AnaesthesiaThe hours in which somebody else does the breathing.34 wordsC2HaematologyBlood, read as a report on the whole body.29 wordsC2Intensive care medicineWhere organs are replaced and decisions cannot wait.34 wordsC2Doping controlA procedure that has more in common with a court case than with sport.26 wordsC2The nervous system and neurologyFrom the nerve cell to the report and on to rehabilitation.43 wordsC2Palliative medicineWhen cure is no longer the aim — and what counts instead.37 wordsC2NephrologyTwo organs that work quietly until almost nothing is left.34 wordsC2Orthopaedics and trauma surgeryBones, joints and what makes them carry weight again.19 wordsC2Addiction medicineA field in which the choice of word is already part of the care.23 wordsC2Sleep medicineA third of a life that is noticed only once it goes wrong.35 wordsC2RadiotherapyA dose aimed at one volume, and a limit that protects the one beside it.32 wordsC2Speech and language therapySpeech, voice and swallowing as the object of treatment.26 wordsC2CardiologyRhythm, valves, coronary arteries — and what the trace shows.40 wordsC2Occupational therapyTreatment that starts from everyday life rather than from the findings on the chart.23 wordsC2EpidemiologyFrequency, risk, bias — and what cause is allowed to mean.40 wordsC2UrologyA specialty poised between internal medicine and surgery.27 words
Spread across the levels
The category runs across the levels — it is an area, not a difficulty. If you practise it, you can also choose a level at the top of the practice page and then get only the part that sits there.
| Level | Words | Share |
|---|---|---|
| A2 | 4 | 0 % |
| B1 | 121 | 7 % |
| B2 | 108 | 6 % |
| C1 | 320 | 19 % |
| C2 | 1144 | 67 % |
Practise this category
Multiple choice and gaps, across all 50 lists and all 1697 words. Whatever you get wrong comes back tomorrow.