5.6. BIRTH AND DEATH

5.6. BIRTH AND DEATH

5.6.1

Presentation

Put the mixed-up lines of the poem in the correct

order. The first line has been identified for you.

Sally’s Excuse for Watching Too Much TV

1. You are conceived

* Not much of a story

* You get pregnant

* You are born

* Is it?

* You die

* You give birth

What is the mood of the poem? Do you feel this way?

What else would you include in the story?

5.6.2

Vocabulary

Look up the meaning of any of the words in the box

you do not understand. Put them in the correct

places in the passage below (you may have to

change the form of the words).

Mary first (1)_____ pregnant at the age of twenty-three. When she realized she was (2)_____ both she and her husband were very happy. It meant that they would finally start the family they had been looking forward to.

Mary was in the middle of writing an article for the local paper when she felt the first (3)_____. She phoned Steve and he rushed home in order to take her to hospital for he was going to be present at the (4)_____.

It was a long (5)_____ and in the end things got a bit difficult so the doctors had to give Mary an emergency (6)_____. At this point Steve fainted. But everything else went well and the baby was (7)_____ at exactly six o’clock in the morning.

Mary has (8)_____ birth to six more children since then – and each time Steve has fainted. Now they both think it’s time to stop. She’s fed up with giving birth and he’s had enough of bumping his head on the hospital floor!

5.6.3

Word Form

Add the words in the box to the stem ‘birth’. Do you

get one word or two? What do the new words mean?

B How many babies are there if you have:

What are identical twins?

5.6.4

Reading

Read and translate the text, learning the new words.

Having a baby

The day I got the results of the pregnancy test – positive, ‘pregnancy confirmed’ – I was over the moon. I sat down and made out a shopping list straightaway.

List for Baby

cot (or crib)

pram and pushchair (and a carry-cot)

2 dozen nappies

safety-pins

high-chair

bib

dummy

rattle

toys and dolls (and a teddy-bear)

potty

masses of cotton wool

for baby to sleep in

to transport him or her

for him or her to wear (underneath)

for his or her nappy

for him or her to sit in at meal-times

round his/her neck when he’s/she’s eating

for him or her to suck

for him or her to shake

for him or her to play with

for him or her to sit on to avoid nappies

as soon as possible

for general cleaning and wiping

I couldn’t believe it: me a mother-to-be! Actually pregnant! Expecting! ‘Anexpectantmother’ – that was my favourite description of me. My friends all joked about me being on some kind of fertility drug, conceiving as I did so soon after our wedding.

I had the customary morning sickness for a while, but after that, no trouble. I went along to the ante-natal clinic every fortnight and started doing all the proper breathing exercises like an excited child.

And I read! Book after book on the subject of childbirth: how big the foetus is in the womb at the various stages, the pros and cons of confinement at home, how 15% of pregnancies end in miscarriage, the dangers of this and that. Some of it wasn’t very pleasant reading, I can tell you.

The feeling of relief was indescribable when, at the beginning of the fifth month, the doctor said he could hear the baby’s heartbeat. He was a fully-trained gynaecologist, by the way – or was he an obstetrician? – I can’t remember. A few days later I felt the first kick, and that was a pretty exciting moment, too.

It was in the twenty-eighth week that things began to go wrong. I had had several blood tests before, but after this one I was told my blood pressure was far too high – there was a risk of blood poisoning – and I would have to go into hospital. There followed a period of heartburn, cramp, vomiting and insomnia. I kept overhearing bits of conversations: ‘may have to inducelabour’, ‘if the baby is premature, we’ll…’ etc. My mind was filled with visions of incubators, induction, Caesarian operations and appalling complications. And the baby wasn’t due for another six weeks!

When the time came, I was in labour for twenty three hours. I remember shouting through a haze as they took me into the labour ward: ‘No drip! No drugs! No stitches! Please!’ I came out having had them all, and in the end it was a forceps delivery – or so I’m told.

After all that, I just looked forward to the simple joys of motherhood. When they told me I couldn’t breast-feed and she would have to be bottle-fed, my post-natal depression really started. Some nights I would lie awake mumbling ‘Never again’.

It’s been pretty well the same story each time, but after the fifth I gave up saying ‘Never again’. I really do think that the stork system of having babies has a lot of advantages.

Practice

Find all these figures and places in the text.

Then show how they are relevant, as in

the examples.

Example:

15% That’s how many pregnancies end in miscarriage.

masses That’s how much cotton wool she bought.

* 28^th

* the ante-natal clinic

* 23 hours

* at least 5

* every 2 weeks

* 2 dozen

* the labour ward

5.6.5

Meaning

Look through the following announcements.

What are they announcing?

What do you know about the following people and places?

* St Mary’s

* George

* Mark

* Kate

* Jones

* Ben & Emily

Is there any difference between these announcements and the way similar events are announced in our country?

5.6.6

Metaphor and

Euphemism

Look at the following expressions. Which

of them mean:

a. die b. a dead person c. dead

Are there euphemisms like these in Russian / Belarusian? Can you translate them into English?

Collocation

In these commonly used phrases about dying, put the

correct preposition or adverb in each space.

She died _______ natural causes.
After his wife’s death he just seemed to fade away. I reckon he died ______ a broken heart.
He finally died yesterday ______ a long illness.
She went peacefully. She died ______ her sleep.
He died _____the injuries he received in the crash.
There’s no real reason. He just died _____old age.
I’ve always wanted to die ______ my bed.
She died ______cancer.

Word Form

Fill the blanks with the right form of the word die:

a. He didn’t have a horrible ______: it was quick, and seconds before he _____he was laughing and joking.

b. Here, he told me to give you his watch. It was his _____ wish.

c. When anybody dies it is sad, but the ______ of children is the worst.

d. I’ll remember this moment to my ______ day.

e. The ______ man lay undiscovered for some three weeks.

f. The car engine spluttered and ______. We were stranded in a deserted country lane.

g. ______ doesn’t frighten me but making speeches does!

Which of the sentences have fixed phrases, and which use the word die, etc. metaphorically?

Word Use

Which of these adjectives are most likely to go with

the following expressions? Sometimes more than one

is possible.

deadly fatal lethal

1. She is suffering from a ______ illness.

2. Who fired the ______ shot that killed the President?

3. That’s a ______ weapon!

4. She took a ______ dose of poison and died.

5. AIDS is a ______virus.

6. She took the ______step which led to her death.

5.6.7

Vocabulary

Describe each of the incidents using one of the words

and phrases in the box.

‘Divers today recovered the body of an old man from the river.’
‘After the first one she was paralyzed all down one side. The second one killed her.’
‘That’s the problem in most fires. People aren’t burnt to death, they’re overcome by the fumes.’
‘Something she ate got stuck in her throat. There was absolutely nothing we could do.’
‘He suddenly stood up and groaned. His face went all red and then he collapsed at our feet.’
‘We think the accident took place sometime in the morning. We found the pedestrian lying in the road early this morning.’

5.6.8

Reading

Look through these thoughts on death noting some of

the words and expressions that may be required on this

delicate subject.

1. Most of our relatives are dead. It’s a big subject. We all die.

The priest says we have gone to meet our Maker – gone to a better place.

Close relatives say we have passed away. Schoolboys say someone has kicked thebucket. Legally speaking, we are referred to as deceased.

There are a hundred and one ways to die. Most people would like to die from natural causes – of old age. Many don’t, as we can see below.

2. Causes of Death among US males aged 25 to 44

a. Accidents

b. Heart Diseases

c. Cancer

d. Homicide

e. Suicide

19,744

10,628

7,690

7,369

6,868

Notes

1. Accidental death covers many things, of course. A fair proportion of those above will have been knocked down in a road accident, many will have died at the wheel of theircar. A few will have died in plane crashes, some will have drowned at sea. Some will have been burnt to death in a fire, a number gassed, rather more electrocuted. A lot no doubt suffocated or were asphyxiated in an airless room or fire, one or two will have choked to death on a fish-bone.

2. There are a hundred and one ways of being killed. If you are an important celebrity, you can be assassinated. Remember the assassination of JFK and the subsequent murder of his suspected assassin? You can be stabbed to death with a sword or knife. You can be shot with a gun like Bonnie and Clyde. You can be poisoned with something you didn’t order in your dinner. You can be strangled with a piece of string or scarf. The Boston Strangler might ring a bell?

3. War brings with it a language of its own: missing, presumed dead; fatally wounded; he laid down his life for his country; she sacrificed herself for the sake of her comrades. In wartime, and even sometimes in peacetime, one hears of massacres and slaughter, with hundreds of victims and often no survivors.

4. There are other ways of being killed, apart from being murdered or being killed inaction. Capital punishment is one of them. Many countries still retain the death penalty for serious offenders. If you are sentenced to death and are not pardoned or reprieved at a later date, then you will be executed; perhaps hanged – with a rope, or electrocuted – in the electric chair, or guillotined – remember the French Revolution, or shot – by a firing squad, or garroted or beheaded or … But enough is enough, I hear you cry. Agreed. If I could just remind you, though, that a couple of thousand years ago you might have been crucified – on a cross, or stoned to death, like some Christian martyrs.

5. There are a hundred and one ways of committing suicide. Many of the horrors above you can do to yourself, but the most popular method is to take an overdose of drugs like Marilyn Monroe and too many others.

Is euthanasia murder? Is voluntary euthanasia the same as suicide? Are they all crimes or do you believe that mercy-killing can bring welcome release?

The statistics deal only with men aged twenty-five to forty-four. Twenty-five is very young, but death can come earlier. The infant mortality rate in some countries is as high as one in three. Despite the advances in medical science, many babies are stillborn, and the number of inexplicable cot deaths continues to give cause for alarm.

For many people, all these figures are somewhat overshadowed by the fact that millions are dying of hunger, starving to death. Some are dying of thirst, many more of malnutrition. Is there a bloodbath waiting round the corner, do you think? A holocaust waiting for the spark?

6. A lot of things have to be done after death. An inquest may have to be held to determine how we died. This might involve a post-mortem or autopsy. Then, most of the arrangements are made by a firm of funeral directors – or undertakers. Much depends on whether we have chosen to be buried or cremated. For burial, we will be concerned with a coffin, in which to place the body, a hearse, in which to transport it, a grave, in which the coffin will finally be placed, and a cemetery (or graveyard), in which the grave will be dug. For cremation, more simply, an urn to hold our ashes, and a crematorium to hold the service. In either case, one might expect wreaths to be brought to the funeral service and an epitaph to be engraved on our headstone. Then it will be time for the will to be read; death duties may have to be paid; our heir will inherit our estate; our widowor widower will no doubt be in mourning for a long time to come.

We are unlikely to have a tomb. Napoleon has a tomb in Paris, but that honour is reserved for people like him. Nor will our corpses be laid to rest in a mausoleum. It is extremely unlikely that someone will compose a requiem in our honour or build a statue to our memory, and almost certain that we shall not lie in state for even a day. An obituary in The Times would be asking a lot. No, I think the most we can hope for is that someone might recognize our talents posthumously and dedicate something to us then. RIP, as we say, or rest in peace.

5.6.9

Definition

Below you will find definitions of some of the

important words in the text. Try to give the word for

each of them.

a person who murders someone important
a large decorative grave with a space inside
be unable to breathe air; dying or killing in this way
to kill by pressing on the throat with the hands
someone put to death for their beliefs
poor condition of health resulting from lack of (good) food
to burn the body of a dead person at a funeral ceremony
an arrangement of flowers such as those given at a funeral
a statement of how you want your things to be shared after your death
a piece of music written for a dead person

Activate

Deaths in fiction are many and varied.

Here are some examples:

a. Romeo and Juliet commit suicide.

b. Dr Zhivago has a heart attack.

c. Captain Ahab drowns.

What poems, plays and films have you read and seen deal with the subject of death? What was your reaction to them?

Practice

Read this extract from an obituary.

Zamoro’s work as a champion of the oppressed came to a sudden end when he had a stroke whilst on a visit to Rio de Janeiro. He died within a few hours. Doctors discovered that he had been suffering from a fatal illness and this probably provoked his death.

Write similar extracts about:

a. a politician who was shot

b. an old person who never woke up

c. someone who died because they had an illness

d. someone who died after a drug overdose

e. someone who fell into a river

f. someone whose heart stopped

5.6.10

Translation

Give a literary translation for the passages below.

Suddenly Ellie was chilled by a feeling that Spence Grant was not going to make it through this with her, that he was going to die somewhere in the night ahead. The foreboding was perhaps not strong enough to be called an explicit premonition, but it was more powerful than a mere hunch.
During the past 14 months she had learned more about herself than in the entire previous 28 years. For one thing, her love for life, her sheer joy in being alive, was greater than she had ever realized until the three people she had loved most had been taken from her in one brutal, bloody night. In the face of so much death, with her own existence in constant jeopardy, she now savored both the warmth of every sun-filled day and the chill wind of every raging storm, weeds as much as flowers, the bitter and the sweet. She had never been a fraction as aware of her love of freedom – her need for freedom – as when she had been forced to fight to keep it. And in those 14 months, she had been amazed to learn that had the guts to walk precipices, leap chasms, and grin in the devil’s face; amazed to discover that she was not capable of losing hope; amazed to find that she was but one of many fugitives from an imploding world, all of them perpetually on the rim of a black hole and resisting its God-crushing gravity; amazed by how much fear she could tolerate and still thrive.

5.6.11

Metaphor and

Idiom

Read this passage from a story called ‘Maureen at

the Factory Gates’. Complete it with words from

the box (you may change the form of the word).

Does anyone have any ideas for saving this company? - asked the chairwoman.

There was a (1)_____ pause and then Valerie said what everyone had been thinking.

‘We will have to shut down this company and start up somewhere else.’

And so the plan was (2)______.

‘You don’t have to come, Madam Chairwoman,’ said Valerie two weeks later, at the end of what they thought would be their last meeting. But the chairwoman was adamant. ‘I was in at the (3)______ and I might as well be in at the (4)_____.

So it was that on a windy day in March a sad group of workers gathered outside the main building to listen to Valerie say the words that would end the experiment they had begun. But even that was unsuccessful since most of her speech was (5)______ out by the road works taking place outside the factory gates.

Of all the workers Maureen was the most upset and in her distress she started to cry. ‘I’m really (6)_____ ‘ she said. ‘I just don’t know what to do.’

But at that moment the noise of the drills on the road suddenly stopped and the sun came out. And the chairwoman stood up and made the suggestion that was to save them.

Many years later Maureen would describe her emotions on that day. ‘Well,’ she used to say, ‘I nearly had a (7)______ when that woman told us what we were going to do. But it was worth it.’ And then she would turn to her husband and say ‘Have you got a fag? I’m (8)______ for a smoke’ and he would reply ‘You will if you have one.’ And they would both laugh.

5.6.12

Speaking

Explain the newspaper headlines. Choose

one and make up the accompanying story.

a. WIDOW SUES HOTEL COOK

b. Miracle of First Baby for Panda Hing-Hing

c. Sextuplets Mum Ecstatic Says Proud Father

d. FATAL DISEASE THREATENS SEAL POPULATION

e. Distraught Romeo in Suicide Bid

Interaction

Act out a conversation in which you ask

someone how her recent pregnancy went

and how the baby is doing.

5.6.13

Discussion

Express your views on the following:

What needs to be done to have healthy and beautiful children?
What is your opinion about modern theories of baby-bearing and labour?
One famous person once said, ‘Death is nature’s way of telling you to slow down’. Can you think about death with humour or is it too serious a topic to be laughed about?

5.6.14

Writing

Write an article describing the funeral of a

famous person.