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CELPIP Practice Reading: Reading for Information ID: #63153 Medium Norman Bethune: chest surgeon, activist and wartime doctor

Read the following passage.

A. Norman Bethune was born in Gravenhurst, Ontario, in 1890. Wounded at Ypres as a stretcher bearer in the First World War, he went home to finish his medical degree. In the mid-1920s he caught tuberculosis, but a risky operation on his diseased lung cured him within a month. Early in 1928 he moved to Montreal, where he spent five years as first surgical assistant to Dr. Edward Archibald at the Royal Victoria Hospital. He designed many new instruments, and one, the Bethune Rib Shears, is still manufactured. In 1933, after frictions with some other doctors, he left to head chest surgery at the smaller Sacré Coeur Hospital.

B. The Great Depression turned the surgeon into an activist. About a third of the people of Montreal were on direct relief, and Bethune came to believe that medicine must deal with the social causes of disease as well as its symptoms. In 1935 he opened a free clinic for the unemployed. He became sure that only government regulation of private practice would ensure treatment for all, whatever their income, and in 1936 he founded an advocacy group for public health care, the Montreal Group for the Security of the People's Health. That same year he joined the Communist Party.

C. In September 1936, during the Spanish Civil War, Bethune volunteered to go to Spain for a Canadian aid committee. Shortly after arriving in Madrid, he planned a mobile service that would collect blood from donors in the cities and carry it wherever it was most needed, and within a month the unit was working. He later called it a 'glorified milk delivery service', but it has been described as the greatest innovation in military medicine of that war. By May 1937 the army's medical services had become a bureaucracy in which he felt he could not function, and he went home to tour Canada raising money for Spain.

D. On January 8, 1938, Bethune left Canada for the last time and went to China, where he worked with the Eighth Route Army of Mao Zedong's Communists against the Japanese forces. As one of the few qualified doctors in a huge region, he put much of his energy into teaching. A model hospital he planned opened in September 1938 but was destroyed by enemy action within three weeks, so he turned to mobile care. In late October 1939 he cut his finger while operating, and he died of blood poisoning on November 12. Mao's essay 'In Memory of Norman Bethune' is still required reading in China.

E. Not given in any of the above paragraphs.

Decide which paragraph, A to D, has the information given in each statement below. Select E if the information is not given in any of the paragraphs.

- 1.
He first met the senior surgeon he later assisted in Montreal while he was still a patient himself.

- 2.
One of the tools he invented for operations is still being made.

- 3.
Other physicians in the city paid for the free care he offered to jobless people.

- 4.
A hospital he created in China was wiped out in under a month.

- 5.
An accident during an operation led to the infection that killed him.

- 6.
Local doctors found him hard to work with because he had not learned their language.

- 7.
After disagreements with colleagues, he moved to a smaller hospital.

- 8.
He became convinced that doctors should address the social roots of illness, not only its signs.

- 9.
In Spain he set up a way to bring donated blood to the places that needed it most.
AI explanationShows the answer. Tap to open.

Correct Answer: E

Why this is correct: Paragraph A mentions his tuberculosis and, separately, his five years working under Dr. Edward Archibald. It never says where or when they first met, so we cannot connect the meeting with his time as a patient.

Passage Reference: Early in 1928 he moved to Montreal, where he spent five years as first surgical assistant to Dr. Edward Archibald at the Royal Victoria Hospital.

Tips: Two facts sitting in one paragraph are not automatically connected. Check whether the text actually joins the illness and the meeting.

Why the other options are wrong:

  • A: Notice that paragraph A has both his illness and his job with Archibald, but in separate sentences. How the two men got to know each other is missing.
  • B: Paragraph B covers the Depression, his free clinic and his politics. Archibald does not appear there at all.
  • C: The third paragraph follows his blood service in Spain, which has no link to his illness or to the surgeon he assisted.
  • D: Notice that paragraph D describes his work and death in China and says nothing about how he was treated as a patient.

Correct Answer: A

Passage Reference: He designed many new instruments, and one, the Bethune Rib Shears, is still manufactured.

Why this is correct: In paragraph A, the writer says he designed many new instruments, and one of them, the Bethune Rib Shears, is still manufactured. Instruments are tools, and 'manufactured' simply means made.

Tips: Find his early work as a surgeon. Check whether anything he created for it is still in use or production today.

Why the other options are wrong:

  • B: Paragraph B is about his clinic, his views on public health care and his politics. Nothing he invented is described there.
  • C: His blood service in paragraph C was a mobile one that he planned. That was an organization, not a tool that is still made.
  • D: The fourth paragraph says he turned to mobile care in China, but it names no instrument that is produced today.
  • E: Notice that paragraph A names the Bethune Rib Shears among his instruments and says they are still manufactured.

Correct Answer: E

Passage Reference: In 1935 he opened a free clinic for the unemployed.

Why this is correct: Look at paragraph B: it tells us that in 1935 he opened a free clinic for the unemployed. It does not say where the money came from or whether other doctors helped, so who paid is never stated.

Tips: Money appears in Paragraph C for a different cause. Ask whether the text says who paid for the clinic at all.

Why the other options are wrong:

  • A: In paragraph A, the writer mentions other doctors. But only the frictions that made him leave for Sacré Coeur, not any gifts of money.
  • B: Paragraph B names the clinic and the people it served, but it is silent about who covered its costs.
  • C: The third paragraph does talk about raising money. But that was on his tour for Spain in 1937, not for patients in Montreal.
  • D: Notice that paragraph D is set in China and mentions no clinic in Montreal and no donors.

Correct Answer: D

Passage Reference: A model hospital he planned opened in September 1938 but was destroyed by enemy action within three weeks, so he turned to mobile care.

Why this is correct: In paragraph D, the writer says a model hospital he planned opened in September 1938. It was destroyed by enemy action within three weeks. Destroyed means wiped out, and three weeks is under a month.

Tips: Find China first. Then check that the hospital there was lost in less than a month.

Why the other options are wrong:

  • A: Paragraph A names two hospitals in Montreal where he worked, but he did not build either one and neither was destroyed.
  • B: Look at paragraph B: it describes a free clinic in Montreal, not a hospital in China.
  • C: The third paragraph uses 'within a month' for his blood unit in Spain starting work, not for a building being lost.
  • E: Notice that paragraph D reports that the model hospital was destroyed within three weeks of opening.

Correct Answer: D

Passage Reference: In late October 1939 he cut his finger while operating, and he died of blood poisoning on November 12.

Why this is correct: Look at paragraph D: he cut his finger while operating in late October 1939. He died of blood poisoning on November 12. The cut was the accident, and blood poisoning was the infection that caused his death.

Tips: Notice that paragraph A also has a serious illness and an operation. Check which illness he survived and which one killed him.

Why the other options are wrong:

  • A: Paragraph A describes a disease he caught, tuberculosis, but an operation cured him of it within a month.
  • B: The second paragraph covers his social and political work in Montreal and says nothing about his death.
  • C: Notice that paragraph C ends with his return from Spain in 1937, with no injury or illness mentioned.
  • E: Notice that paragraph D links the cut finger during an operation to his death from blood poisoning.

Correct Answer: E

Passage Reference: By May 1937 the army's medical services had become a bureaucracy in which he felt he could not function, and he went home to tour Canada raising money for Spain.

Why this is correct: Paragraph C says his work in Spain ended because the army's medical services had become a bureaucracy. He felt he could not function in it. Language and the attitude of local doctors are never mentioned.

Tips: Look at paragraph C: it gives its own reason for his trouble in Spain. Compare that reason with the one in the statement.

Why the other options are wrong:

  • A: The first paragraph does mention trouble with other doctors, but in Montreal in 1933. It gives no language problem as the cause.
  • B: Notice that paragraph B describes his activism in Montreal and has nothing about Spain or any language.
  • C: Look at paragraph C: it explains why his work in Spain ended. But the reason it gives is army bureaucracy, not a language barrier.
  • D: His students and patients in China are the subject of paragraph D. What languages he spoke is not discussed.

Correct Answer: A

Passage Reference: In 1933, after frictions with some other doctors, he left to head chest surgery at the smaller Sacré Coeur Hospital.

Why this is correct: Paragraph A says he had frictions with some other doctors in 1933. After that, he left to head chest surgery at the smaller Sacré Coeur Hospital. Frictions are disagreements, and the other doctors were his colleagues.

Tips: He leaves a post after problems in two paragraphs. Look for the one about other doctors and a smaller hospital.

Why the other options are wrong:

  • B: The second paragraph shows him disagreeing with how medicine was run, but it does not describe him changing hospitals.
  • C: Notice that paragraph C tells how he left his work in Spain because of army bureaucracy. That is a different move and a different problem.
  • D: Paragraph D turns to the model hospital and mobile care in China. A move after a quarrel is not part of it.
  • E: Paragraph A gives both the frictions with other doctors and his move to the smaller Sacré Coeur Hospital.

Correct Answer: B

Passage Reference: About a third of the people of Montreal were on direct relief, and Bethune came to believe that medicine must deal with the social causes of disease as well as its symptoms.

Why this is correct: Look at paragraph B. During the Depression he came to believe something new. Medicine must deal with the social causes of disease as well as its symptoms. Social causes are social roots, and symptoms are the signs of illness.

Tips: 'Roots' here means reasons, and 'signs' are what a patient shows. Look for a belief about what doctors should treat that names both.

Why the other options are wrong:

  • A: The first paragraph tells how an operation cured his own tuberculosis, a medical treatment, not a social one.
  • C: Notice that paragraph C is about delivering blood to the wounded in Spain. It does not discuss what causes illness.
  • D: Look at paragraph D: it describes teaching and mobile care in China. But it says nothing about his beliefs on the causes of disease.
  • E: In paragraph B, the writer sets the social causes of disease beside its symptoms, which is exactly this idea.

Correct Answer: C

Passage Reference: Shortly after arriving in Madrid, he planned a mobile service that would collect blood from donors in the cities and carry it wherever it was most needed, and within a month the unit was working.

Why this is correct: Look at paragraph C: in Madrid he planned a mobile service. It would collect blood from donors in the cities and carry it wherever it was most needed. Blood from donors is donated blood, so the statement matches.

Tips: Start with Spain. Then look for a way to move blood from people who give it to where it is needed.

Why the other options are wrong:

  • A: Notice that paragraph A describes a lung operation and new instruments in Montreal, but no blood service.
  • B: Notice that paragraph B is about public health care in Canada, not a service in Spain.
  • D: Paragraph D also has mobile care, but it is in China and about treating the wounded, with no mention of donated blood.
  • E: The mobile service that collected blood from donors and carried it where it was needed is described in paragraph C.

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