大连外国语学院 谢永辉

　　Can you imagine an English major, who deals with 26 English letters all day long, spending a year at a medical college? Being a joint-major of English and health care management, my one-year study at Dalian Medical University turned out to be an extraordinary experience, just like a cultural shock one gets when one goes to another land. My first anatomy lesson was the most unforgettable. For the first time I was so close to a corpse, facing real human organs (not plastic imitations), the heart, lungs, stomach, etc.

　　The huge lab building looked ghastly and gloomy. The ground floor was devoted to dissecting rooms, decorated with white curtains. Every time I passed a dissecting room, I would tremble, and my blood would curdle. However, once I did submit to my curiosity and peeped through a chink between two curtains, though I had no luck seeing anything. My curiosity, mixed with a bit fear, was not satisfied until my first anatomy lesson.

　　Curiously but abit afraid, I entered the lobby of the lab building with my classmates. We all gathered there, afraid to stepsintosthe dissecting room, when the professor, a middle-aged bony man in a doctor’s white coat encouraged us with a grin to step in.

　　“Come on in! Don’t be nervous.”Followed by my fellow students, I edged my waysintosthe room,swheresthe strong smell of formalin welcomed me. Before I could cover my nose, the chilling sight of a real skeleton swinging its arm bones sent my entire body trembling with terror. My classmates all went pale, too. Some girls even screamed and refused to open their eyes.

　　“It’s just a collection of bones, 205 pieces, to be exact,‘cause I used one of them as my pointer.”The professor’s humor eased the tension and freed us from the physical paralysis of shock.“Since it’s our first lesson, I’ll give you a brief introduction to anatomy by showing you around so you can get a glance of various specimens.”Looking around, I found that the room was filled with a considerable number of organ specimens soaked in square glass containers with formalin: a whole embryo, a hand, a brain, a lung, and many other organs which I could not name. Gradually the fears within ourselves disappeared, and we became overwhelmed with curiosity.

　　“What’s this, professor?”“What’s that, professor?”One question arose after another, and the professor answered them with great patience and smiles.

　　Then the professor led us to a dissection table. It was quite obvious that a human body was lying on it under a white cover.“Now,”the professor paused,“We’re going to see how the organs are arranged in the human body.”With these words, he slowly uncovered the body. A man’s head appeared, pink and black from long being soaked in formalin for a long time, his eyes staring at us impassively! We all gasped at the frightening sight, and some even turned their heads away.“Oh, come on. Don’t be afraid. This guy used to be a criminal, but he hasn’t committed a single crime since he lay here five years ago.”Clearly, the professor was trying to distract us from fears, and it worked.“Now, if you want to know the exact arrangement of the viscera (internal organs), look here!”In a split second, the chest and abdominal cavity was thrust open before us. The professor took the organs out one by one and explained them to us.

　　“It’s really an eye opener to see all these specimens and to learn about our own body, but it challenges our nerves, too!”I confessed to the professor after class.“It surely was. As the saying goes, a live tiger is frightening but a dead tiger isn’t. As for a human being, the opposite applies! Most of the fears we have are created by ourselves; that is, we’re frightening ourselves! Therefore, overcoming our fears is the first step towards learning anatomy, and it’s true with any other task we want to accomplish!”answered the professor, still smiling.

　　These words still ring in my ears now, reminding me of that first challenging and exciting anatomy lesson.