Painless!

SOLUTIONS (PRE-INTERMEDIATE)

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The Guy Who Can't Feel Pain?!

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 @english_with_erika

Hi! I’m Ashlyn Blocker!

My life without pain!

A. All children hurt themselves from time to time.
But when thirteen-year-old Ashlyn Blocker was
younger, she had more accidents and injuries than
her friends. For example, she once put her hands
on a very hot engine and got a serious burn. She
only knew about it when she looked at her skin.
She showed her parents and they took her straight
to hospital. Ashlyn simply did not know when she
injured herself.

1.12
B. When Ashlyn was a baby, her parents knew
she was different: she didn't cry. Then, when she
was eight months old, they noticed there was
some blood in her eye, so they took her to see a
doctor. The doctor was shocked and confused
when he looked at Ashlyn's eye: there was a
serious cut. So why wasn't the baby girl upset?
Why didn't she cry? The eye injury soon got
better, but doctors realised that Ashlyn had a
very unusual medical condition: she couldn't feel
any pain.

C. This condition is very rare: only about a

hundred people a year in the USA are born
with it, and many of them die because of it.
Pain is a natural warning: when you're ill
or injured, your body hurts and this tells
you there's a problem. People who can't
feel pain often die young because when
they break a bone or have a problem with
their heart, they just don't realise.
D. The first few years of Ashlyn's life were very
difficult. She often tripped and injured herself.
Once, she broke her ankle and didn't know, so she
didn't stop running. At school, Ashlyn needed a lot
of attention to keep her safe. For example, in the
playground, one teacher watched Ashlyn all the
time. When other children fell over, the teachers
could ask, 'Does it hurt?' But of course, with
Ashlyn, it was not so simple, and the teachers had
to search for cuts, bruises or other injuries.
E. When she was five, Ashlyn's story appeared in
newspapers. Then she had invitations to appear on
TV shows and became well known. Scientists
studied the causes of her condition and found it
was a genetic disorder. For some reason, pain
signals do not reach her brain. Unfortunately, at
the moment, there is no hope of a cure. And as
Ashlyn knows, a life without pain is both difficult
and dangerous.
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Reading Tasks Read the text again. Match the questions below with
paragraphs A-E of the text. There are two extra
questions.

In which paragraph does the writer tell us…

1. when doctors realised Ashlyn had a medical problem?
2. what causes her condition?
3. what happened when she burned her hands?
4. what scientists are doing to find a cure?
5. why some people die from this condition?
6. what treatment Ashlyn receives every day for her
problem?
7. how school life for Ashlyn was unusual?

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 Speaking
Talk about information in the text that you found
surprising or interesting.

I found it
surprising that ..

I found it
interesting that ..

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 Complete the questions using the question words
below. Then answer the questions.

When Who
How What
many? Why

1. How did Ashlyn burn her hands?

2. _____ was the doctor shocked when he saw Ashlyn's eye injury?
3. _____ people are born with this medical condition in the USA each year?
4. _____ watched Ashlyn carefully in the playground at school?
5. _____ did Ashlyn's story first appear in newspapers?
6. _____ is the cause of Ashlyn's medical condition?

How did Ashlyn

burn her hands? She put her hands
on a hot engine.

@english_with_erika
 Vocabulary
burn / cut / hurt / injure yourself - обжечься / порезаться
/ ушибиться/ травмироваться

fall / trip / slip over - опрокинуться / споткнуться /

поскользнуться

break your arm / finger - сломать руку / палец

sprain your ankle / wrist - растянуть лодыжку / запястье

bleed - кровоточить
my leg hurts - моя нога болит

@english_with_erika
 Vocabulary
blood - кровь
sprain - растяжение
a broken arm - сломанная рука

a bruise - синяк
a burn - ожог
a cut - порез

an injury - травма
a sprain - растяжение
pain - боль
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