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BEST IELTS Reading Practice Test Academic 162
IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST 162 – PASSAGE – 1
IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST – 162
READING PASSAGE – 1
Parasitic Worms’ Efficacy
A. Parasitic worms, like hookworms, whipworms, pinworms and flukes that plague humans are enough to make most of us shudder, except John Turton. In the middle of 1970s, whilst working at the UK’s Medical Research Council Laboratories in Surrey, he intentionally infected himself with hookworms in an attempt to alleviate his chronic hay fever. It worked. During two summer seasons whilst he held the parasites, his allergy diminished.
B. In regions where parasitic worm infections are rife, when the remedy emerged, Turton’s vital experiment came. In 1913 W. Herrick, a doctor from Columbia University in New York found a very different link between parasitic worms, or helminths, and allergies. Lab workers analysed the gut-dwelling roundworm Ascaris that often caused tenderness and swelling around the fingers and more severe asthma after longer exposure.
IELTS Reading Practice Test Academic
C. Researchers have been trying to make sense of these contradicting findings since the 1970s in the hope of being able to use the power of parasites to help free people of their allergies, without making things worse. They know they are playing with fire. After all, helminths are responsible for some truly horrible diseases and cause great suffering around the world. However, as the effects of helminths on the human body become clearer, it looks like their healing powers may have potential benefits.
D. Not surprisingly, no researchers have been willing to take the risk of deliberately infecting themselves as Turton had done. Instead, most studies are dependent on populations in countries where people are already infected. This research tends to emphasize three commonly diagnosed allergic conditions: asthma, eczema and hay fever. The results have been confusing, but now researchers are beginning to have a better understanding.
E. For instance, a study conducted in Taiwan showed that people infected with Enterobius vermicularis, a pinworm that is one of the most common gut parasites in the world, were less likely to have hay fever than the rest of the general population. But the results from Ecuador show a different story. Hay fever was not more common in children living in urban areas than it was in children living in rural areas. The parasite was equally common in both groups, so the researchers concluded that something else must be responsible for the prevalence of hay fever.
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F. Knowing about eczema has proved as difficult to interpret. For instance, a study in Uganda discovered that eczema was less common among babies whose mothers had been infected with helminths whilst being pregnant. But, another study this time in Ethiopia discovered that children with Trichuris worms, and whipworms that infest the large intestine, were more likely to have eczema than uninfected children.
G. Regarding asthma, Herrick’s discovery that it can be started by contact with the Ascaris was confirmed in the 1970s. But, hookworms decreased the extremity of asthma in a group of Ethiopians and similar benefits have been seen in Brazilian asthma sufferers infected with the Schistosoma Mansoni, the flatworm responsible for schistosomiasis, which damages internal organs.
What are we to make of all this? The outstanding link between allergies and parasites is the human immune system. Allergies are caused by an overactive immune response, and helminths have strategies to dampen down our immune response to stimulate their survival. After all, they have evolved alongside humans for several thousands of years.
IELTS Reading Practice Test Academic
H. In people with no allergies, foreign material entering the body stimulates the release of cytokines, molecules that sound the alarm to get the attention of other immune cells. As immune cells set to attack the intruder, another set of molecules is released to prohibit the immune response from overreacting. One of the main molecules responsible for keeping reactions in check is interleukin-10, which inhibits the release of certain cytokines.
People with allergies tend to have lower than normal levels of interleukin-10, so their immune responses frequently get out of hand. In contrast, people infected with helminths have above-average levels of the molecule, and research on schistosomiasis patients indicates that this is at least partially because of the worms that set free chemicals that trigger the production of interleukin-10 in their host.
IELTS Reading Practice Test Academic
Questions 1-8
Reading Passage 1 has eight paragraphs, A-H.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
NB You may use any letter more than once.
1. Lab workers’ duties
2. Contrary results between surveys
3. A voluntary attempt against allergy
4. The same results between surveys
5. A powerful remedy for allergies
6. Understanding of immune responses
7. Critical connection between allergies and parasites
8. Three most common allergies
IELTS Reading Practice Test Academic
Questions 9-13
Do the following statements reflect the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE – if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE – if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN – if there is no information on this
9. John Turton infected himself with hookworms by mistake.
10. Dr Herrick has found a different feature between worms and allergies.
11. Researchers have not known the healing potential of parasites since the 1970s.
12. Allergies have the same appearance as parasites.
13. People with allergies may have higher than ordinary levels of interleukin-10.
IELTS Reading Practice Test Academic
ANSWERS ARE BELOW
IELTS Reading Practice Test Academic
ANSWERS
1. B
2. F
3. A
4. E
5. C
6. H
IELTS Reading Practice Test Academic
7. G
8. D
9. FALSE
10. TRUE
11. FALSE
12. NOT GIVEN
13. FALSE
IELTS Reading Practice Test Academic