5713 - Reading Flashcards
Hand washing is one of the simplest and most powerful weapons against infection. The idea behind hand washing is deceptively simple. Many illnesses are spread when people touch infected surfaces, such as door handles or other people’s hands, and then touch their own eyes, mouths, or noses. So, if pathogens can be removed from the hands before they spread, infections can be prevented.
How does frequent hand washing lessen the chance that people will transfer pathogens to their own eyes, mouths or noses?
Handwashing can remove pathogens before a person touches his own eyes, mouth, or nose and the person will not be infected.
Hand washing is one of our simplest and most powerful weapons against infection. The idea behind hand washing is deceptively simple. Many illnesses are spread when people touch infected surfaces, such as door handles or other people’s hands, and then touch their own eyes, mouths, or noses. So, if pathogens can be removed from the hands before they spread, infections can be prevented.
Q. How does frequent handwashing lessen the chance that people will transfer pathogens to their own eyes, mouths, or noses?
When people touch surfaces such as door handles, they can pick up pathogens that others have left there. However, handwashing can remove pathogens before a person touches his own eyes, mouth, or nose. In this case, he will not become infected.
One of the reasons the flu has historically been so deadly is the amount of time between when people become infectious and when they develop symptoms. Viral shedding—the process by which the body releases viruses that have been successfully reproducing during the infection—takes place two days after infection, while symptoms do not usually develop until the third day of infection. Thus, infected individuals have at least twenty-four hours in which they may unknowingly infect others.
Q. What happens after infection occurs but before flu symptoms develop?
Viral shedding occurs two days after infection and one day before flu symptoms develop.
During the 1920s in the United States, musicians flocked to cities such as New York and Chicago, which would become famous hubs for jazz musicians. Ella Fitzgerald, for example, moved from Virginia to New York City to begin her much-lauded singing career, and jazz pioneer Louis Armstrong got his big break in Chicago.
Q. What did Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong have in common?
Both were 1920s jazz musicians who became famous when performing in big U.S. cities such as New York and Chicago.
Activity level has a significant impact on a patient’s energy needs. A bedridden patient will obviously expend fewer calories and thus will need to eat fewer. An elderly, bedridden women can need as little as 8.5 calories per pound of body weight: if such a patient weighed 135 pounds, she would need only 1150 calories a day.
Q. What causes a bedridden patient to need fewer calories per day than she would need if she were not bedridden?
Someone who stays in bed all the time is less active than someone who is not bedridden. The less active someone is, the fewer calories she needs.
Archaeologists have discovered the oldest known specimens of bedbugs in a cave in Oregon where humans once lived. The three different species date back to between 5,000 and 11,000 years ago. The finding gives scientists a clue as to how bedbugs became human parasites. These bedbugs, like those that plague humans today, originated as bat parasites. Scientists hypothesize that it was the co-habitation of humans and bats in the caves that encouraged the bugs to begin feeding on the humans.
Q. What happened after humans began sleeping in caves where bats lived?
After humans began sleeping in caves, species that originated as bat parasites became human parasites as well. Eventually, humans named such parasites “bedbugs.”
Between November 15 and December 21, 1864, Major General William Tecumseh Sherman marched Union troops from the recently captured city of Atlanta to the port of Savannah. The goal was not only to capture the port city and secure Georgia for the Union, but also to destroy the Confederacy’s infrastructure and demoralize its people.
Q. Where did General Sherman and his troops begin marching on November 15?
Atlanta, Georgia; the text says that they marched “from the recently captured city of Atlanta to the port of Savannah.”
It seemed to Julia as if the other drivers on the road felt as sluggish and surly as as she did—it took her an extra fifteen minutes to get to work. And when she arrived, all the parking spots were full. By the time she’d finally found a spot in the overflow lot, she was thirty minutes late for work. She’d hoped her boss would be too busy to notice, but he’d already put a pile of paperwork on her desk with a note that simply said “Rewrite.”
Q. How does Julia know that her boss has noticed that she is late for work?
He has already put a pile of paperwork on her desk, so he must have noticed that she was not there on time.
In 1864, marching from Atlanta to Savannah, General Sherman and his Union troops destroyed rail lines and burned buildings and fields. They packed only twenty days’ worth of rations, foraging for the rest of their supplies from farms along the way. By the time they reached Savannah, they had destroyed 300 miles of railroad, countless cotton gins and mills, seized 4,000 mules, 13,000 head of cattle, 9.5 million pounds of corn, and 10.5 million pounds of fodder. Sherman estimated his troops inflicted $100 million in damages.
Q. What did the Union troops do after using up the rations they packed?
They used supplies that they “foraged” (took or stole) “from farms along the way.” These supplies included cattle, corn, and fodder.
At midnight on Saturday, August 12, 1961, units of the East German army moved into position and began closing the border between East and West Berlin. Destroying streets that ran parallel to the border to make them impassable, they installed ninety-seven miles of barbed wire and fences around West Berlin and another twenty-seven miles along the border between West and East Berlin.
Q. Was the author’s main purpose for writing this passage to inform readers or to express an opinion? Explain how you know.
The author’s main purpose is to inform readers; no opinions are expressed, only facts.
The Gatling gun, a forerunner of the modern machine gun, was an early rapid-fire spring loaded, hand-cranked weapon. In 1861, Dr. Richard J. Gatling designed the gun to allow one person to fire many shots quickly. His goal was to reduce the death toll of war by decreasing the number of soldiers needed to fight.
Q. Did Dr. Gatling’s gun probably “reduce the death toll of war”? Why or why not?
No, probably not: his gun could kill more enemy soldiers in a shorter time. Also, its invention led to the creation of the “modern machine gun,” which could kill an even greater number of people in an even shorter time.
The energy needs of patients can vary widely. Generally, energy needs are directly related to a person’s weight and inversely related to age; it’s also generally true that men require more calories than women. Thus, a thirty‐five‐year-old woman who weighs 135 pounds will require around 1800 calories a day, while an older woman would require fewer, and a heavier woman would require more. A man of the same age and weight would require 2000 calories a day.
Q. If a sixty-year-old woman who weighs 135 pounds eats 1,800 or more calories a day, what will probably happen?
She will probably gain weight. The passage says that “an older woman [who weighs 135 pounds] would require fewer [calories per day than 1,800].”
In December of 1944, Germany launched its last major offensive campaign of World War II, pushing through the dense forests of the Ardennes region of Belgium, France, and Luxembourg. Due to troop positioning, the Americans bore the brunt of the attack, incurring 100,000 deaths, the highest number of casualties of any battle during the war. However, after a month of grueling fighting in the bitter cold, a lack of fuel and a masterful American military strategy resulted in an Allied victory that sealed Germany’s fate.
Q. How did a lack of fuel “result in an Allied victory”?
The Germans lacked fuel and so could not move their troops and equipment around efficiently. This and “a masterful American military strategy” allowed the Allies to win.
The cisco, a foot-long freshwater fish native to the Great Lakes, had almost died out by the 1950s, but today it thrives. The cisco have an invasive species, quagga mussels, to thank for their return. Quagga mussels depleted nutrients in the lakes, harming other species highly dependent on these nutrients. Cisco, however, thrive in low-nutrient environments. As other species—many invasive—diminished, cisco flourished in their place.
Q. How did quagga mussels prevent the cisco’s extinction?
Quagga mussels depleted nutrients in the Great Lakes, harming species that needed them. Since the cisco thrives in low-nutrient environments, and because it now had fewer species to compete with, this freshwater fish stopped dying out and began to thrive again.
One myth that prevents the advancement of pain management practices is the myth that pain is a necessary part of an animal’s recovery. While some veterinarians believe that pain may prevent a healing dog, for example, from playing too vigorously, Dr. Debbie Grant says this is simply not the case. In fact, restlessness and discomfort may even lead to unusually high levels of agitation and may consequently slow the recovery process even further.
Q. Regarding the idea that “pain is a necessary part of an animal’s recovery,” how does Dr. Grant’s opinion differ from those of “some [other] veterinarians?
Dr. Grant thinks that this is a myth, and that “restlessness and discomfort may even lead to unusually high levels of agitation and may consequently slow the recovery process even further.” The other vets “believe that pain may prevent a healing dog, for example, from playing too vigorously.”
In 1953, doctors surgically removed the hippocampus of patient Henry Molaison in an attempt to stop his frequent seizures. Unexpectedly, he lost the ability to form new memories, leading to the biggest breakthrough in the science of memory. Molaison’s long-term memory—of events more than a year before his surgery—was unchanged as was his ability to learn physical skills. From this, scientists learned that different types of memory are handled by different parts of the brain.
Q. Based on the text, which part of the brain probably handles the task of forming new memories?
The hippocampus probably handles the task of forming new memories—after doctors removed Molaison’s hippocampus, “he lost the ability to form new memories.”
Scientists think it was too hot in the solar system’s early days for water to condense into liquid or ice on the inner planets, so it had to be delivered—possibly by comets and water-bearing asteroids. NASA’s Dawn mission is currently studying Ceres, which is the largest body in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Researchers think Ceres might have a water-rich composition similar to some of the bodies that brought water to the three rocky, inner planets, including Earth.
Q. How do scientists think Earth originally got its water?
They think Earth’s water “had to be delivered—possibly by comets and water-bearing asteroids.” They think Earth originally had no water because “it was too hot in the solar system’s early days for water to condense into liquid or ice on the inner planets.”
The American love affair with popcorn began in 1912, when popcorn was first sold in theaters. The popcorn industry flourished during the Great Depression when it was advertised as a wholesome and economical food. Selling for five to ten cents a bag, it was a luxury that the downtrodden could afford. With the introduction of mobile popcorn machines at the World’s Columbian Exposition, popcorn moved from the theater into fairs and parks.
Q. Use context to define the word downtrodden.
During the Great Depression, many people lost their jobs, so they were very poor. By “the downtrodden,” the author must mean poor people, people who were beaten down—demoralized—by hard economic times.
Martin Seligman’s 2011 book is titled Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being. The author’s well-being theory addresses not only life satisfaction but also the extent to which one flourishes in his or her life. According to this theory, an individual’s well-being is determined by—in addition to subjective experiences like positive emotions, engagement, and meaning—external factors like constructive relationships and personal achievement.
Q. According to Seligman, which “external factors” help an individual to flourish?
“External factors like constructive relationships and personal achievement” help an individual to flourish.
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, decided to tackle an age-old problem: why shoelaces come untied. They recorded the shoelaces of a volunteer walking on a treadmill by attaching devices to record the acceleration, or g-force, experienced by the knot. The results were surprising. A shoelace knot experiences more g-force from a person walking than any rollercoaster can generate.
Q. What is this passage mainly about?
The passage is mainly about researchers who tried to figure out why shoelaces come untied. All the details in the passage support this main idea.
