Table of Contents
BEST IELTS General Reading Test 49
GENERAL READING TEST 49 – PASSAGE – 2
GENERAL READING TEST – 49
READING PASSAGE – 2
A. The work of the heart can never be interrupted. The heart’s job is to keep ayeen rich blood flowing through the body. All the body’s cells need a constant supply of oxygen, especially those in the brain. Brain cells live only four to five minutes after their oxygen is cut off, and death comes to the entire body
B. The heart is a specialized muscle that serves as a pump. This pump is divided into four chambers connected by tiny doors called valves. The chambers work to keep the blood flowing round the body in a circle.
C. At the end of each circuit, veins carry the blood to the right strium, the first of the four chambers. Its oxygen has been used up and it is on its way back to the lungs to pick up a fresh supply and to give up the carbon dioxide it has accumulated
D. From the right atrium, the blood flows through the tricuspid valve into the second chamber, the right ventricle. The right ventricle contracts when it is filled, pushing the blood through the pulmonary artery, which leads to the lungs. In the lungs, the blood gives up its carbon dioxide and picks up fresh oxygen. Then it travels to the third chamber, the left atrium. When this chamber is filled it forces the blood through the mitral valve to the left ventricle. From here it is pushed into a big blood vessel called aorta and sent round the body by way of arteries.
E. Heart diseases can result from damage to the heart muscle, the valves or the pacemaker. If the muscle is damaged, the heart is unable to pump properly. If the valves are damaged, blood cannot flow normally and easily from one chamber to another, and if the pacemaker is defective the contractions of the chambers will become un-coordinated.
F. Until the twentieth century doctors didn’t dare to touch the heart. In 1953, all this changed. After twenty years of work, Dr. John Gibbon of the U.S.A. had developed a machine that could take over temporarily from the heart and lungs. Blood could be routed through the machine, bypassing the heart so that surgeons could work inside it and see what they were doing. The era of open-heart surgery had begun
G. In the operating-theatre, it gives surgeons the chance to repair or replace a defective heart. Many patients have had plastic valves inserted in their hearts when their own was faulty. Many people are being kept alive with tiny battery-operated pacemakers none of these repairs could have been made without the heart-lung machine. But valuable as it is to the surgeons, the heart-lung machine has certain limitations. Is can be used only for a few hours at a time because its pumping gradually damage the blood cells.
Questions 14-20
Reading Passage has seven passages A-G which paragraph contains the following information.
Write the correct letters A-G in boxes 14-20 on your answer book.
14. The heart is unable to pump properly with damaged muscle.
15. The heart-lung machines has certain limitations.
16. The heart’s job is to keep oxygen-rich blood flowing.
17. The words ‘aorta’ and ‘arteries’ have been used in paragraph.
18. The heart-pump is divided into four chambers.
19. A machine was developed by Dr. John Gibbon of U.S.A.
20. Veins carry the blood to the right atrium.
Questions 21-28
Complete the summary using the list of words A-J below.
Write the correct letter A-J, in boxes 21-28 on your answer sheet.
You can use any letter more than once.
The heart keeps oxygen-rich (21)…………………..flowing through the body. It has a special (22)………………..that serves as a pump. The pump is divided into four (23)………………The first of the four (24)……………..is right atrium. From here, the blood flows, through a (25)……………into the second chamber. Heart diseases can result from (26)……………..to heart muscle. If the muscle is damaged, the heart is unable to (27)………………… properly. Sometimes (28)……………..is used for this purpose.
List of Words
A. Valve
B. Muscle
C. Lungs
D. Chambers
J. Blood
E. blood cells
F. Damage
G. pacemaker
H. bypassing
I. pump
ANSWERS ARE BELOW
ANSWER KEY
14. E
15. G
16. A
17. D
18. B
19. F
20. C
21. J
22. B
23. D
24. D
25. A
26. F
27. I
28. G