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BEST IELTS Academic Reading Test 510
IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST 510 – PASSAGE – 2
IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST – 510
READING PASSAGE – 2
Bacteria: Winning the War
A. Let’s start with some statistics. In one gram of ordinary soil there exists about 40 million bacteria. In one milli-litre of apparently fresh water there exists at least a million more. If numbers do not adequately give the message, let me express it another way. The biomass of bacteria on Earth exceeds that of all plants and animals put together, by far! Bacteria are simply in every habitat on Earth, in incalculable numbers. They can exist in boiling hot springs, in nuclear reactors, and in rocks deep in the Earth’s crust. Don’t be fooled-this is their planet, not ours.
B. Bacteria are living organisms leading quiet lives of their own, and mostly they are eating, reproducing, and eating again-and they will eat almost anything-glues, metals, oils, and radioactive waste. With their constant, never-ceasing, and tireless munching, they purify our soils, cause dead organisms to rot, fix nitrogen, produce most of the world’s oxygen, and maintain the nutrient cycle.
They are just so small that we do not notice them. For that, you will need a microscope, and upon using this, you would see that bacteria have a wide range of shapes. Most are either spherical, called cocci, or rod-shaped, called bacilli, but they can be curved or comma- shaped, spiralled or coiled, and all existing only to eat and reproduce.
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C. Bacteria particularly flourish in organic matter and in the living bodies of plants and animals, which includes people. More than one trillion bacteria are over your body, eating your dead flakes of C skin, your oily secretions, and other trace elements exuded from your pores. There are trillions more bacteria inside you, particularly in your digestive system-eating, excreting, and multiplying.
If that sounds bad, be assured that the vast majority of these bacteria are rendered harmless by the protective effects of the immune system. Furthermore, quite a few of them are beneficial, contributing to immunity against other unwelcome microbes, and helping with the synthesis of vitamins, the conversion of milk protein to lactic acid, as well as the fermentation of complex indigestible carbohydrates.
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D. Having said that, quite a few bacteria are definitely not beneficial. These are known as pathogens, and they kill tens of millions of people a year. We know them by the names of the diseases they cause dreaded words such as cholera, syphilis, leprosy, and bubonic plague. To combat these, the human body is armed with many million varieties of white blood cells, each primed to attack specific bacterial invaders which can cause trouble.
However, identifying the exact type of bacteria takes the body some time. This is the period in which you are sick. Recovery cannot begin until the invader is recognised, and the white blood cells launch into attack, hunting down and killing the invasive bacteria. In that time, however, you have undoubtedly coughed, sweated, sneezed out, or released as diarrhea, trillions of the bacteria, all helping to spread the disease further.
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E. This is the problem. Bacteria multiply with astonishing speed, splitting in a process known as binary fission. Occasionally this produces a mutant, and on very rare occasions, this mutant is endowed with some advantage. As rare as this event is, given bacteria’s speed of reproduction, the chances are increased. Mason Clark, a scientist at the Smithson Institute of Bacteriological Science, states, ‘This is evolution in the fast lane, and with the widespread overuse of antibiotics, E we are making it faster.
If administered in a controlled and rational way, antibiotics kill virtually all pathogens as required. The trouble is, in many countries antibiotics are sold over the counter without prescription, and even under medical supervision, as Mason Clark states, they are misused and overused by doctors as well as patients. In addition, they are indiscriminately fed to commercial farm animals as growth promoters. This allows bacteria with antibiotic-resistant traits to survive, to pass on this gene to subsequent generations.
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F Some bacteria can develop more than one resistant gene, becoming what is often known informally as a ‘superbug”. Varieties of antibiotic-resistant staphylococcus and streptococcus are on the rise, often lurking in hospitals and clinics, to infect luckless patients. Insufficient hand washing by hospital staff and visitors can make this worse, resulting in these places being very dangerous indeed, such that the quicker a patient can leave, the better. Some studies show that up to half of fatal infections in hospitals are due to rogue superbugs, all alarmingly resistant to whatever antibiotics are thrown at them. As Mason Clark notes, “We are waging a war, an endless war, and the bacteria are beginning to win it.”
Questions 14 to 19
Which of the following paragraph headings matches Paragraphs A to F?
A. In Sickness and Health
B. Strong and Deadly
C. Bad Medicine Making Bigger Problems
D. Rulers of the World
E. On the Outside and Inside
F. Useful Hunger
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14. Paragraph A
15. Paragraph B
16. Paragraph C
17. Paragraph D
18. Paragraph E
19. Paragraph F
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Questions 20 to 22
Write True, False, or Not Given, according to the information given in the reading passage.
20. The weight of all plants and animals is more than bacteria.
21. Bacteria cannot be seen with the naked eye.
22. Our immune system can deal with all bacteria.
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Questions 23 to 25
Write ONE WORD ONLY for each answer.
A few bacteria are definitely not beneficial. Pathogens kill tens of millions of 23…………. a year. We know pathogens by the names of the diseases such as cholera, 24………….. , leprosy, and bubonic plague. To tackle these, the human body is armed with many million varieties of white blood cells, each primed to attack specific bacterial invaders which can cause trouble. Whereas, 25……………. the exact type of bacteria takes the body some time.
Question 26
Choose the correct answer: A, B, C, or D.
A. Antibiotics are changing bacteria.
B. Doctors are rationally giving antibiotics.
C. Superbugs have one resistant gene.
D. Most fatal hospital infections are due to superbugs.
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ANSWERS
14. D
15. F
16. E
17. A
18. C
19. B
20. FALSE
21. TRUE
22. FALSE
23. PEOPLE
24. SYPHILIS
25. IDENTIFYING
26. A
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