Reading and Understanding Medical Texts – Reading comprehension exercise
Reading
Reading and Understanding Medical Texts – Reading comprehension exercise
Read the following excerpt and , without looking back at the article , answer the reading comprehension questions . The answers are at the bottom of this page .
Text
Arthritis and rheumatism are general names for approximately 100 diseases that produce inflammation or degeneration of connective tissue . Some of these diseases are infectious and primarily affect younger people . Rheumatic fever , for example , is a bacterial infection that occurs mostly in children or teenagers . Rheumatoid arthritis predominantly strikes women between 20 and 60 . However , the most common rheumatic disease is a noninfectious , noninflammatory degenerative joint disease – osteoarthritis . To some degree , it affects nearly all older adults , causing swelling , pain , and stiffness in joints . Treatment may include heat , exercises , and drugs that reduce pain and inflammation .
Besides osteoarthritis , many other noninfectious diseases can limit the activities of the elderly . Osteoporosis ( a condition in which bone loss exceeds bone replacement so that the bones become less dense , more porous , and more brittle ) often leads to fractures , especially of the hipbone . Many conditions conspire to decrease the sensory perception of the elderly . Cataracts are created when the lens of the eye – or a portion of it – becomes opaque and sometimes swells or shrinks and interferes with vision . Deterioration of nerves in the inner ear causes the characteristic old-age hearing loss , most severe in the high-pitched tones . The senses of taste and smell also deteriorate in old age . Source : Tiersky , E . M . ( 1992 ) The Language of Medicine in English , Englewood Cliffs : Prentice Hall , pp . 39-44 .