WebDonuts – By Mike Gruhn – http://www.webdonuts.com
Transcript
- Anesthetist: Count backwards from 100 and tell me when you can no longer feel your wallet.
Vocabulary
- Anesthetist (n.) /əˈniːs.θə.tɪst/ a doctor who gives anaesthetic to people in hospital.
- Anesthesia (n.) /ˌæn.əsˈθiː.zi.ə/ before an operation, the patients are put to sleep. This is called anesthesia (= a state in which you do not feel pain, usually because of drugs you have been given).
- Backwards (adv.) /ˈbæk.wədz/ the opposite of forwards; in the direction that is opposite to what is expected.
- Wallet (n.) /ˈwɒl.ɪt/ a small case for carrying paper money, credit cards, etc., used especially by men. Here, it basically means money.
Context
- Anesthetists usually ask patients to start counting when they are about to put them to sleep. Generally, the patients are asleep after a few seconds. The fact that this patient is asked to count from 100 may indicate that this will be a long and painful process.
- This comic strip criticizes the fact that having an operation in a hospital in certain countries like the United-States costs a lot of money for the patient. “When you can no longer feel your wallet” = “when we have taken all your money!”
