Microbes: Friend or Foe

Which is a true statement?

• Microbes can cause dangerous diseases AND be helpful to humans.

• We know slightly more about microbes now than we did when George Washington lived.

• Microbes are always dangerous, and scientists are working to wipe them out.

• Our natural defenses are able to keep all dangerous microbes out of our bodies.

Which of the following helps a human body defend against microbes?

• skin

• vaccinations

• white blood cells

• all the above

Which of the following is the best summary statement for the section titled "Fighting Microbes with Vaccines"?

• Vaccines are useful in helping extremely ill people recover from dangerous infections.

• Vaccines are able to prevent some infections by helping the body recognize dangerous microbes.

• Dr. Jenner discovered that a person who had already had cowpox didn't get smallpox, a dangerous disease.

• Each year, many people get a flue shot, which is a vaccine used to prevent a common infection.

What is an antibiotic?

• a rapid spread of a disease around the world

• a type of bacteria living in human cells

• a medicine that attacks harmful microbes

• a disease for which there is no known cure

How were cowpox and small pox different from each other?

• Cowpox spread in Italy, and smallpox spread in England.

• Smallpox spread only in livestock, and cowpox spread among humans.

• Cowpox was a mild disease, and smallpox killed thousands.

• Smallpox had a cure, but cowpox did not.

Why do scientists keep trying to produce stronger antibiotics?

• Because people can take an antibiotic only one time.

• because all types of antibiotics can be produced only once

• because stronger antibiotics are needed to fight stronger microbes that are forming.

• all of the above

What do bacteria and viruses have in common?

• They both only live for twenty-four hours

• They both are the same size.

• They both can cause serious infectious diseases

• They both are good and help our immune system.

Read this sentence: The sick man contaminated the doorknob. What does contaminated mean?

• harmed

• wiped clean

• made sick

• made dirty with germs

Malaria is most often spread by...

• sneezing

• mosquito bites

• contaminated food

• all the above

What might happen if a person sneezes on his or her hand, and then you shake that hand?

• Germs could get on your hand.

• you might get sick

• you could pass the germs onto someone or something else

• all the above