Replace the underlined words with their synonyms.

contagious, give rise to, attack, gain control of, classified, gain, passes, multiplication, predisposed

1. Many kinds of bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms can invade the human body and cause disease.

2. Pathogens take over some of the body's cells and tissues and use them for their own growth and reproduction.

3. Infectious diseases can be grouped according to the kind of patho­gen that causes them.

4. As a result, people infected with the virus become susceptible to certain illnesses that do not normally occur or that normally are not serious.

5. These pathogens obtain food by breaking down body tissues or by absorbing digested food from the intestines.

6. Most infectious diseases are communicable.

8. Occasionally, an infectious disease becomes highly contagious and sweeps through a community.

Answer the following questions.

1. What are pathogens?

2. How can infectious diseases be grouped?

3. What organisms are called bacteria?

4. What diseases are caused by viruses?

5. What do you know about AIDS?

6. How do fungi, protozoans, and worms obtain food?

7. How do infectious diseases spread?

8. What conditions are called an epidemic, a pandemic, an endemic?

Fill in the words from the list, then make sentences using the completed phrases.

disease-causing, throughout, minor, life-threatening, highly, lifeless, electron

1. microorganisms

2. particle

3. infections

4. disorders

5. contagious

6. the world

7. microscopes

Read the text and put each sentence into the correct place.

Some pathogens can survive for long periods on nonliving objects. Insects spread some of the most fatal infectious diseases. Many common infectious diseases spread as a result of close contact with a sick person.

HOW INFECTIOUS DISEASES SPREAD

Infectious diseases can spread in three chief ways. They spread (1) by people, (2) by animals, and (3) by nonliving sources.

1).............................................................. Such contact frequently takes place through coughing or sneezing, which expels tiny droplets of moisture that may contain pathogens. Diseases that spread largely through coughing and sneezing include colds, influenza, measles, mumps, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and whooping cough.

2) Fleas, mosquitoes, and other insects that feed on blood transmit many serious diseases. Mosquitoes transmit encephalitis, malaria, and yellow fever in this way. In the same manner, fleas spread plague, and lice carry typhus.

3).......................................... These microorganisms can be transmitted by clothing, bedding, silverware, and other objects handled by sick people. Certain bacterial infections sometimes spread to hospital patients through contact with such contaminated objects.

IV. Speaking

1. Complete the dialogue with the words/phrases below and act it out.

kilos, food, in general, phlegm, energy, pains

Doctor: And how long have you had this temperature?

Patient: Oh, I don't know exactly. About two weeks on and off.

D.: And is the temperature there all the time or does it come on at any particular time?

P.: Well, sometimes I'm all right during the day but, I wake up at night and I'm drenched in sweat, drenched, and sometimes my whole body shakes.

D.: And how have you been feeling________?

P.: Well, I don't know, I've been feeling a bit tired and weak. And I just don't seem to have

any.

D.: And have you noticed any pain in your muscles?

P.: Yes, well, actually I have a bit, yes.

D.: And what about your weight? Have you lost any weight?

P.: Yes, I have, about two__________.

D.: I see, and what about your appetite? What's your appetite been like?

P.: Well, I've really been off my________ this last while. I just haven't felt like eating.

D.: And have you had a cough at all?

P.: Oh yes, I have. Nearly all the time. I sometimes bring up a lot of

D.: And have you noticed any blood in it?

P.: No, never.

D.: Have you had any_________ in your chest?

P.: Not really.

2. Give as much information as you can about:

- bacterial diseases;

- viral diseases;

- AIDS;

- infectious diseases caused by fungi, protozoans and worms;

- the spread of infectious diseases.