听播客学英语 258 兽医

 　　My friend Sarah is a vet¹. I have asked her to tell us about a typical day’s work.

　　I am a veterinary surgeon and work for a charity called PDSA, which stands for the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals. We treat pets belonging to people who are on state benefits and cannot afford to pay veterinary fees. We see mainly cats and dogs, but also plenty of rabbits, hamsters and guinea pigs.

　　One Saturday I was seeing emergency cases at a Birmingham pets hospital. The day started at 9 in the morning, and my first job was to check the animals that had been kept in overnight. I then called into the consulting room a lady with a white cat, named Smudge, that was having difficulty breathing. The owner thought that the cat had something stuck in its throat.

　　When I looked at Smudge, she was breathing with her mouth wide open, which is usually a serious sign. She was breathing very quickly and was barely able to stand. I checked her throat and could see no obvious obstruction². Having listened to her heart using a stethoscope, I was suspicious that she was in heart failure and decided³ that Smudge needed some oxygen as her tongue was looking pale. I advised the owner that I thought Smudge’s condition was critical and that I wanted to keep her in hospital to x-ray her chest and give her treatment as necessary. Although the lady was upset, she could understand that we needed to admit Smudge into the hospital so we could check her condition frequently.

　　Smudge improved slightly after having oxygen so we were able to x-ray her chest. The x-ray showed a very enlarged heart and lungs full of fluid. This confirmed the diagnosis⁴ I suspected. We gave her some injections to clear the lungs of some of the fluid and Smudge gradually improved over the following hours. She was sent home 2 days later when she was much better although she needed to be given tablets for the rest of her life to prevent fluid leaking into her lungs. The owner was delighted to take her home.

　　I saw many other animals on that day, but Smudge was my most rewarding case. She was a true emergency.

1 vet   

n.兽医，退役军人；vt.检查

参考例句：

• I took my dog to the vet.我把狗带到兽医诊所看病。
• Someone should vet this report before it goes out.这篇报道发表之前应该有人对它进行详查。

2 obstruction   

n.阻塞，堵塞；障碍物

参考例句：

• She was charged with obstruction of a police officer in the execution of his duty.她被指控妨碍警察执行任务。
• The road was cleared from obstruction.那条路已被清除了障碍。

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 diagnosis   

n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断

参考例句：

• His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。