Self Help

1. What is Huntington's disease?

• A. a curable, fatal neurological (brain) disorder

• B. an incurable, nonfatal neurological (brain) disorder

• C. an incurable, fatal neurological (brain) disorder

• D. a curable, nonfatal neurological (brain) disorder

Tags

CCSS.RI.6.2

2. The text is divided into sections with subheadings. In the section called "Inherited Disorder," what does the author describe?

• A. the mutation that causes the C-A-G section of the huntingtin gene to repeat more than 17 or 18 times

• B. the huntingtin protein and the work that Carroll and his colleagues at UBC are conducting on mice

• C. the loss of nerve cells in the region of the brain that controls movement and possibly cognition

• D. the characteristics of Huntington's disease and Carroll's family history with the disease

Tags

CCSS.RI.6.1

CCSS.RI.6.2

CCSS.RI.6.3

3. Read this sentence from the text.

"Huntington's disease can have serious consequences on people."

What evidence from the text supports this statement?

• A. Everyone has a gene called the huntingtin gene. In most people, the huntingtin gene has a section in which the bases C-A-G are repeated 17 or 18 times.

• B. Symptoms of the disease include mental deterioration and uncontrollable jerking movements. People eventually lose the abilities to walk, speak, and care for themselves.

• C. Every gene holds the instructions for the production of a different protein in the human body. The huntingtin gene writes the code for the huntingtin protein.

• D. Some people inherit a mutation, or change in their genetic code, that causes the C-AG section of the huntingtin gene to repeat itself many times.

Tags

CCSS.RI.6.1

CCSS.RI.6.5

CCSS.W.6.9A

4. In 2006, some of Carroll's lab mates made a breakthrough in their work with a strain of mice engineered to carry the human gene for Huntington's. Why did the mice not get the disease even though they had more than 100 C-A-G repeats?

• A. because the faulty huntingtin protein did not chop the caspase 6 enzyme in two and set free the extra fragments that would have attacked neurons

• B. because the caspase 6 enzyme did not chop the faulty huntingtin protein in two and set free the extra fragments that would have attacked neurons

• C. because the extra fragments did not chop the faulty huntingtin protein in two and set free the capase 6 enzyme that would have attacked neurons

• D. because the neurons did not chop the faulty capase 6 enzyme in two and set free the faulty huntingtin protein that would have attacked extra fragments

5. What is this passage mostly about?

• A. Huntington's disease and Jeff Carroll's search for a cure

• B. the basal ganglia and its control over movement and cognition

• C. the death of Jeff Carroll's grandmother to Huntington's disease

• D. the scientific discovery of the huntingtin gene in 1993

Tags

CCSS.RI.6.2

6. Read these sentences from the text.

"Thirty-year-old Jeff Carroll is fit and healthy, but he knows he won't stay that way forever. Carroll has seen the future. He has the gene for Huntington's disease, an incurable, fatal neurological (brain) disorder."

What does the sentence "Carroll has seen the future" refer to in this excerpt?

• A. Some of Carroll's lab mates made a breakthrough in 2006.

• B. Carroll knows he will probably start to show symptoms of Huntington's disease around age 49.

• C. Carroll took Internet biology courses in his free time so that he could better understand Huntington's disease.

• D. Carroll left the service to return to school and earn a bachelor's degree in biology.

Tags

CCSS.RI.6.1

CCSS.RI.6.2

CCSS.RI.6.4