Programme For International Student Assessment Pisa / Sample Science Passage 5: Mary Montagu


Read the following newspaper article and answer the questions that follow. 

The History of Vaccination 
Mary Montagu was a beautiful woman. She survived anattack of smallpox in 1715 but she was left covered with scars.
While living in Turkey in 1717, she observed a method calledinoculation that was commonly used there. This treatment  involved scratching a weak type of smallpox virus into theskin of healthy young people who then became sick, but inmost cases only with a mild form of the disease. 


Mary Montagu was so convinced of the safety of theseinoculations that she allowed her son and daughter to beinoculated. 
In 1796, Edward Jenner used inoculations of a related disease,  cowpox, to produce antibodies against smallpox. Comparedwith the inoculation of smallpox, this treatment had less sideeffects and the treated person could not infect others. The  treatment became known as vaccination. 
 



If animals or humans become sick with an infectious bacterial disease and then recover, the type of bacteria that caused the disease does not usually make them sick again. What is the reason for this?

The body has made antibodies that kill this type of bacteria before they multiply.
The red blood cells kill all bacteria that may cause the same kind of disease.
The red blood cells capture and get rid of this type of bacteria from the body.
The body has killed all bacteria that may cause the same kind of disease.

What kinds of diseases can people be vaccinated against?

Diseases from the malfunctioning of the body, like diabetes.
Any sort of disease that has no cure.
Diseases that are caused by viruses, like polio.
Inherited diseases like haemophilia.