What are your symptoms?

看醫生的時候，醫生通常會問病人：What are your symptoms?（你的癥狀是什么？）一般的癥狀如：頭痛(Headache)、沒胃口(Loss of appetite) 、喉嚨痛(Sore throat)等等，下次要懂得如何告訴醫生自己的癥狀。

對 話

Doctor: So tell me, what are your symptoms?

Patient: Well doctor, at the beginning of every week I wake up with a sense of dread, a headache, my legs are shaking and I feel depressed.

Doctor: Ah! They are all classic symptoms of Mondaymorningitis.

Patient: Can you cure me? It sounds very serious.

Doctor: It means you don't want to go to work. Now get out of my office you lazy-bones, I've got some real patients to see.

醫生：告訴我你的癥狀是什么？

病人：醫生，每個星期的開端，我起床時感到畏懼和頭痛，雙腿發抖，覺得很沮喪。

醫生：哦！這些都是‘周一早上懶惰癥’的典型征候。

病人：可以醫治嗎？聽來很嚴重。

醫生：你只是不想上班，出去吧，你這個懶骨頭，我要替真正的病人看病。

醫生聽病人說了癥狀之后戲言：They are all classic symptoms of Mondaymorningitis.（這是‘周一早上懶惰癥’的典型征候）。字尾－itis指‘炎癥’，例如bronchitis（支氣管炎）、cystitis（膀胱炎）、hepatitis（肝炎）等。俗語常把-itis加在一些名詞之后，表示在某事物上的病態傾向，例如：He suffers from televisionitis/creditcarditis（他患了電視沉迷癥/信用卡濫用癥）。

Symptom是‘征兆’，例如：Repeated demonstrations are a clear symptom of the people's discontent.（示威運動此起彼落，是民眾不滿的明顯征兆）。醫學上，symptom是指癥狀，例如：A fever is a symptom of illness.（發燒是病征）。醫生問病，一般會說：Can you describe your symptoms/problem?（你可以說說你的癥狀/問題嗎？）或What are your symptoms?（你的癥狀是什么？）或What seems to be the matter/problem?（你覺得有什么不適？）或What is wrong?（哪里不舒服？）或What brings you here?（為什么要看醫生？）

醫生問病人的問題，常見的還有：(1) How long have you had this problem?/How long have you been suffering from this?（你發生這個癥狀多久了？）(2) Have you had this problem before?/Have you suffered from this before?（以前患過這種病嗎？）(3) Is there a history of asthma/heart disease/cancer/diabetes/schizophrenia in your family?（家族有沒有哮喘/心臟病/癌癥/糖尿病/癡呆癥的病歷？