EXERCISE

10 READING COMPREHENSION

TEXT

1 It may seem hard for us to believe in this, the age of heart attacks and cancer, but one of the most
common causes of death in prehistoric man was tooth decay. At first this may seem highly improbable;
after all, you’ve likely never heard of anyone dying in the dentist’s chair. But many thousand years ago,
when dental hygiene was non-existent, the same bacteria that cause tooth decay and cavities (caries)
today would multiply unchecked (desenfrenado) and spread to the tissues (tejidos) surrounding the
mouth, one of those being, of course, the brain. Once there, the bacteria quickly affected brain functions
until the victim died of what today is easily preventable by a simple routine of tooth brushing or a visit
to the dentist. Contributing to this situation was the generally bad health of our early ancestors, who
rarely ate enough high quality food to meet all their nutritional needs. This left their immune systems
weakened and less able to fend off the bacteria that ravaged (devastar) their bodies. These bacteria, in
a more evolved form, continue to attack us today, though for the most part they go unnoticed, killed by
our immune systems or by the many medicines that we have at our disposal. We should not, however,
take dental hygiene for granted (dar por sentado). Although the odds (probabilidad) of dying from tooth
decay are exceedingly low in first world countries, failing to take care of our teeth can still have some
undesirable, and very painful, consequences.
EXCERCISE

2 1. The first sentence implies that 1. a) heart disease was a problem in prehistoric
man,
b) most deaths in modern man are from heart
attacks and cancer,
c) people still die from tooth decay,
d) prehistoric man died from heart attacks,
cancer and tooth decay.
2. Which of the following does NOT explain why 2. a) heart disease was a problem in prehistoric
early man died from tooth decay? man,
b) most deaths in modern man are from heart
attacks and cancer,
c) people still die from tooth decay,
d) prehistoric man died from heart attacks,
cancer and tooth decay.
3. The passage implies that if we stopped 3. True False
brushing our teeth, we too would probably die
from tooth decay just like prehistoric man did.
4. What do you think the phrasal verb “fend off” 4. a) prevent,
(underlined) means? b) avoid,
c) fight,
d) detect.
5. How many reasons does the author give 5. a) 1,
for why the bacteria that attack us today go b) 2,
unnoticed? c) 3,
d) 0.
6. Better nutrition and the availability of 6. True False
antibiotics means we can ignore dental health.
7. A good title for this passage would be: 7. a) Tooth decay: still a killer,
b) A history of dentistry,
c) Good nutrition: key to dental health,
d) Tooth decay and prehistoric man.

10 · COMPRENSIÓN ESCRITA · NIVEL INTERMEDIO