ALLERGIE (Reading passage)
Some people suffer from high fever when pollen is in the air. Others develop skin rashes when they touch certain substances. Still others experience stomach cramps after eating particular foods. These ailments are all caused by allergic reactions to various substances. In most cases an allergy causes relatively mind symptoms such as sneezes from breathing dust. A rare and severe allergic reaction can occasionally lead to death. Death from bee stings is an example of this severe type of allergic reaction. When possible, one should avoid contact with the pollens, foods or whatever has previously caused an allergic reaction. Many substances are so widespread, however, that it is difficult to avoid them. These include dust, pollens, and polluted air. When allergy is severe, it is possible for a physician to desensitise the person to he allergen under the skin, and gradually increasing the dose until a tolerance to the allergen is built up.
EXERCISE 1: Find words or phrases in the passage which mean the same as:
COLUMN A COLUMN B
a. experience something painful
or unpleasant
...................................................
b. an illness caused by an allergy to ...................................................
c. fine yellow dust on a flower that
causes other plants to produce seeds ...................................................
d. a lot of small red spots on one’s
skin (plural) ...................................................
e. severe pain from the tightening of a
muscle, which makes it difficult to move ...................................................
f. any bodily or mental disorder, illness ...................................................
g. a physical response caused by an
allergy to something ...................................................
h. comparatively quite not absolutely ...................................................
i. not severe or strong ...................................................
j. physical sing of a health problem ...................................................
k. the state of touching something ...................................................
l. existing in many places ...................................................
m. doctor ...................................................
n. make someone less sensitive to
something reduce someone’s
response to something ...................................................
o. something that causes allergy ...................................................
p. a product obtained by removing it
from another substance ...................................................
q. slowly step by step ...................................................
r. an amount of medicine to be
taken at one time ...................................................
s. the body’s ability to become less
sensitive to something over time ...................................................
EXERCISE 2: Choose the correct answer according to the passage.
1. Allergic reactions ......................... .
a. are usually not too serious
b. unfortunately often end in death
c. usually make people sneeze
d. are experienced by all people
e. are always the cause of rashes
2. We can assume from the passage that dust, pollens and polluted air ................... .
a. should be avoided at all costs, or the sufferer may die
b. are the greatest threat to allergy sufferers in urban areas
c. account for the death of many people so far
d. are among the deadliest of all allergens
e. are allergens that are hard to avoid
3. We can conclude from the passage that ......................... .
a. doctors are usually helpless in allergy cases
b. the most common allergic reaction is to be stings
c. allergens and allergic reactions are of various types
d. a sufferer can only avoid allergens through professional assistance
e. most allergy sufferers develop stomach pain after eating some foods
EXERCISE 3: Complete the sentences selecting words from Column B Exercise 1.
1. It is important not to take antibiotics too often as the body can develop a / an ................................ to them which causes them to become ineffective.
2. Both my mother and my sister ................................ migraines and are frequently ill.
3. Don had the flu last week, but luckily it was a / an .............................. attack, so he didn’t need to take any time off work.
4. The damage from the storm was ................................ most parts of the country were affected by it.
5. The .............................. of the childhood disease measles are not hard to identify – lost of little red spots all over the body.
