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 be- tween doctors and their patients was the most important part of medical methods. The modem age of medicine began with the stethoscope, an instrument for listening to patients’ heartbeat and breathing. Before that, a doctor did not touch a patient. In fact, there was no such thing as a me- dical examination.

The stethoscopewith all other medical instruments--has a serious effect on the practice of medicine. Doctors become better at finding the medical problems. More lives are saved. At the same time, doctors give less importance to the communication between patients and doctors. Some doctors actually stop 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 illnesses

C. measure temperatures

D. treat heart disease

2. Doctors give less importance to the communication between patients and doctors mainly be-cause_______.

A. modem medical instruments are used

B. they can cure more diseases and save more lives

C. they have much more medical experience than before

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

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

A. modem 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 satisfied with the manner in which doctors treated them