I asked myself this in a café three years ago dedicated to a question from the medical tests and I ask myself this again today, after the word convict came back to the surface in the exercises for the next test published on the ministry website. So I obeyed the conditioned reflex of making fun of such an eccentric choice, inviting the authors of the quizzes to undergo a test themselves. But three years is enough time to change your mind or at least point of view.
The question aims to find out if the candidate knows the difference between zapotec and the words in common use (from library to wine shop) that use the suffix «teca» in the sense of «deposit». While Zapotec, far from being a warehouse for hoes, indicates belonging to an ancient population of Mexico.
Mind you, one can become a medical genius while happily ignoring that diversity. But, if he can grasp it, it means that he is capable of enlarging his head.
And every day we learn first-hand how important it is for a doctor, in addition to knowing the small part of the body he is a specialist in, to be able to see the patient as a complete human being.
So I correct myself: knowing why Zapotec and library do not belong to the same family of words could be useful to a future surgeon from Bergamo or Catanzaro, and consequently to us too.
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May 7, 2024, 06:29 – edit May 7, 2024 | 08:46
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