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Can there be a world without antibiotics?

Medical experts around the globe are worried that moreand more viruses and bacteria are becoming resistant to today’s medicine. They are afraid that in a few generations antibiotics may become useless. Scientists have already discovered bacteria that do not react if treated with antibiotics. As a result medical treatment will become more expensive as new drugs have to be developed.

Doctors and other health experts criticize the fact that antibiotics are being used in a wrong way. They are often prescribed in cases in which they do not work. In some areas, especially Third World countries and densely populated areas in India, Pakistan or Bangladesh doctors have already run out of antibiotics. Prescribing wrong antibiotics or taking them for too short a time will not kill off bacteria. Some doctors prescribe antibiotics for the common flu, making it ineffective for later illnesses. The World Health Organization claims that many infectious diseases are becoming untreatable and cannot be controlled. Many patients who become resistant to drugs even die.

Another problem is that farmers in the United States and Europe are adding antibiotics to feed cattle and other animals, in order to make them grow faster and produce more meat. Also, through increased global travel, bacteria are spreading faster than ever before.

Since Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in the early 20th century antibiotics have saved hundreds of millions of lives. Many operations cannot be carried out if we are unable to treat infections. The transplantation of organs can become very risky if patients do not get medication to strengthen their immune system. Routine operations like removing an appendix or replacing a bad hip could become fatal. Childbirth may once again threaten a woman’s life and raise child mortality. Even illnesses like pneumonia, which today can be treated effectively with antibiotics, might once again turn into a mass killer. Antibiotics have made infections like tuberculosis treatable. Cancer treatment would be unthinkable without the proper treatment of the immune system to accompany it.

Health experts call for increased action to fight off diseases. Most common is the call to improve hospital hygiene, where infectious diseases start out. Especially in Third World countries, bacteria spread through dirty water and the sewage system. Even making people aware of washing their hands more often can stop the spread of infectious diseases.

Read the dialogue below and answer question.

[1] Dad: Frog, I like frog. It runs through a maze for some
cheese…
Child: Noooooooooo, that's mouse!
Dad: Oh, mouse. I see. Mouse. I like mouse. I like how
[5] it swims in the ocean…
Child: No! That's fish.
Dad: Oh, I see. Fish. I like fish. I like how it scratches at
fleas and bark at the mailman…
Child: No, no, no, no.
[10] Dad: No?
Child: You don't know anything about animals, daddy!
(Adapted from “The Elephant Song”, by Eric Herman)

Italian university switches to English

By Sean Coughlan, BBC News education correspondent 16 May 2012 Last updated at 09:49 GMT

Milan is crowded with Italian icons, which makes it even more of a cultural earthquake that one of Italy’s leading universities — the Politecnico di Milano — is going to switch to the English language. The university has announced that from 2014 most of its degree courses — including all its graduate courses — will be taught and assessed entirely in English rather than Italian.

The waters of globalisation are rising around higher education — and the university believes that if it remains Italian-speaking it risks isolation and will be unable to compete as an international institution. “We strongly believe our classes should be international classes — and the only way to have international classes is to use the English languange", says the univertsity's rector, Giovanni Azzone.

This migrant crisis is different from all others

2015 was unquestionably the year of the migrant. The news was dominated for months by pictures of vast crowds shuffling through the borders of yet another European country, being treated with brutality in some places and given a reluctant welcome in others.

When researching a report for radio and television about the migrant phenomenon, it is possible to realize that there was nothing new about it. For many years, waves of displaced and frightened people have broken over Europe again and again and the images have been strikingly similar each time.

In 1945, ________________ (1) the ethnic Germans, forced out of their homes in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Russia and obliged to seek shelter in a shattered and divided Germany. More recently, we can see floods of Albanian refugees escaping from the ethnic cleansing of the Serbian forces in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999.

Yet there is one major difference between these waves of migrants in the past and the one we saw in 2015. Professor Alex Betts, director of the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University says that it was the first time Europe faced people coming in from the outside in large numbers as refugees. He explains: “The fact that many are Muslims is perceived as challenging Europe’s identity.” European societies are changing very fast, indeed, as a result of immigration. In London, for instance, more than 300 languages are now spoken, according to a recent academic study. The influx of migrants reinforces people’s sense that their identity is under threat.

But how can the world deal conclusively with the problem? The former UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, Sir John Holmes, blames global governance. “Other powers are rising,” he says - Syria is an example of this. “And the United States doesn’t have the influence it once did, so the problem’s not being fixed, no-one’s waving the big stick and we’re having to pick up the pieces.” We have endured an entire century of exile and homelessness and the cause is always the same - conflict and bad government. Unless these are dealt with, the flow of migrants will never be stopped.

Adapted from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-35091772

Directions: Answer questionaccording to the text.

TEXT

CYBERBULLYING ON THE RISE

Bullying among children and teenagers is not

something new but it is getting more and more common

by modern methods of communication.

Cyberbullying happens when an adolescent is

[5] put in danger by another child or teenager by photos or

text messages sent to cell phones or posted on social

networks. Sometimes cyberbullies send mails with

sexual comments or take passwords of other teenagers

and log on to websites with false identities. Children also

[10] play Internet games and make fun of each other in many

ways.

A study by a Canadian University shows that

half of the young people interviewed said that they suffer

bullying. One of the reasons is the great use of cell

[15] phones over the past years. Today’s children are

connected with each other electronically. They call

friends every time they want or communicate with them

on Facebook.

Cyberbullying is getting extremely popular

[20] because teens can stay anonymous. Many adolescents

act this way because they feel frustrated or angry and

want to punish somebody for something that happened

to them. At other times they do it just for fun or because

have nothing else to do. Parents usually don’t know their

[25] child is a cyberbully. They perceive it just when the

victim or the victim’s parents contact them.

This kind of bullying is not as inoffensive as

many people think. In some cases it can lead to suicide.

Many countries have organized campaigns to inform

[30] adults and children of its dangers.

There are a few ways to prevent cyberbullying.

First, it is important to show children that they have to

respect others and they are responsible for what they

do. For victims it is important not to play the bully’s game

[35] or answer their emails and text messages. It is also

important to get help from parents and teachers.

Often schools get involved. They bring together

the parents of victims and cyberbullies and talk with

them. Cyberbullying does not always end at school.

[40] Often, parents go to the police and accuse the bullies.