Directions: In this section, you have a short passage. After the passage, you will find some items based on the passage. Read the passage carefully and answer the items based on it. You are required to select your answers based on the contents of the passage and the opinion of author only. We live in a time when globalisation is rapidly encompassing travel, information, trade and investment. The internet ties people together in ways unimagined a few years ago. The globalisation of health, however, remains an elusive goal, similar to the globalisation of economic well-being. Laurie Garrett, in The Coming Plague, describes an unwelcome form of globalisation: the globalisation of disease. Garrett examines the recent history of emerging diseases such as AIDS, Ebola, Hantavirus, Rift Valley Fever, Legionnaires' disease, and others. She also explains the resurgence of familiar diseases like tuberculosis, cholera, and pneumonia as a consequence of the widespread and unwise use of antibiotics. Many of the new diseases are clearly linked to changes in land use, which brings humans into close contacts with rodents or other animals that harbour viruses previously unknown to medicine and often deadly to humans. Resurgent diseases, by contrast, are a creation of our medical practice. By treating people with antibiotics without restraint, we unknowingly select strains that are immune to the antibiotics and that pass on their resistant genes to unrelated bacteria by way of plasmid transfer. The heroes of her book are the women and men on the frontlines of epidemiology. Garrett makes a plea for a greater commitment from our universities, medical schools, and government agencies to train workers who will be capable of recognizing new diseases and who will be able to move about equally well in the laboratory, the hospital and the field in pursuit of knowledge and public-health intervention around the world.
Emerging Diseases: Understanding Land Use Changes and Disease Spread
This question asks us to identify the reason why many new diseases are emerging, specifically linking this emergence to changes in land use, based on the provided passage.
Passage Analysis: Globalisation of Disease
The passage discusses the concept of the "globalisation of disease," contrasting it with the globalisation of travel and information. It highlights the work of Laurie Garrett in her book "The Coming Plague," which examines both newly emerging diseases (like AIDS, Ebola) and the resurgence of familiar ones (like tuberculosis, cholera) due to factors like widespread antibiotic use.
Crucially, the passage states:
"Many of the new diseases are clearly linked to changes in land use, which brings humans into close contacts with rodents or other animals that harbour viruses previously unknown to medicine and often deadly to humans."
This sentence directly addresses the core of the question.
Evaluating the Options
Let's analyze each option in light of the passage:
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Option 1: humans are coming in contact with unfamiliar viruses
This option aligns perfectly with the passage. The text explicitly mentions that changes in land use lead to humans coming into "close contacts with rodents or other animals that harbour viruses previously unknown to medicine." This direct contact facilitates the emergence of new diseases.
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Option 2: urbanisation makes pathogens proliferate
While urbanisation is a form of land use change and can contribute to disease spread, the passage doesn't specifically state that urbanisation *itself* makes pathogens proliferate as the primary reason for *new* disease emergence. Instead, it focuses on the *contact* with novel viruses facilitated by land use shifts.
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Option 3: humans become adaptive and pass on their genes to related bacteria by way of plasmid transfer
This option describes mechanisms related to antibiotic resistance and the resurgence of familiar diseases ("Resurgent diseases, by contrast, are a creation of our medical practice..."). It does not explain the emergence of *new* diseases linked to land use changes.
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Option 4: humans are inadvertently releasing new viruses
The passage doesn't suggest humans are actively "releasing" viruses. The mechanism described is one of accidental exposure and contact due to habitat changes, rather than deliberate or accidental release.
Conclusion
Based on the direct explanation provided in the passage, the emergence of many new diseases linked to changes in land use occurs because these changes increase the likelihood of humans encountering viruses they haven't been exposed to before, carried by animals whose habitats are disturbed.
Similar Questions
- What pushes farmers into places unsuited for agriculture?
- Which one of the following is NOT true, according to the passage, for ecological degradation ?
- What is the conclusion of the author in the passage about the prospects of agriculture in the world?
- Which one of the following words means 'incursion'?
Which one of the following is a way to establish the discovery of a new language?
Which one of the following statements is correct?
“The people may be known, but the identity of their language may not be”, means:
Which one of the following words from the passage means “come to be known”?
- What according to the passage is the 'unwelcome form of the globalization'?
1. Globalization of the diseases
2. Elusive goal of globalization
3. History of fatal diseases
4. Selective use of antibiotics
Select the correct answer using the code given below : - According to the passage, resurgent diseases are affected by:
1. Medical practices
2. Overuse of antibiotics
3. Emergence of new strains
Select the correct answer using the code given below :
Important Questions from Reading Comprehension
What is the meaning of ‘intrigued’?
What are ice shelves?
What are icebergs?
When the iceberg turns upside down, it appears ________.
The use of science in its simple form has helped man to ____________
