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BLOCK SESSION WEEK 19

IGCSE ESL
SECOND LANGUAGE ENGLISH

LISTENING
PAST PAPER
PRACTICE

SPEAKING

Dog sniffs out superbug in Canadian PAST PAPER


PRACTICE
hospital
Mans best friend, bacterias worst enemy: dog sniffs out
superbug in Canadian hospital
With his hospital ID badge around his neck, Angus considered the empty bed
in front of him. After a few strong sniffs, he moved on. Going near to the next
bed, his ears perked up before he stopped, tapping his paw and looking at his
handler expectantly. The two-year-old dog is believed to be the only one in
WRITING
the world trained to sniff out the notorious superbug Clostridium difficile or,
PAST PAPER
PRACTICE

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integer, a dolor netus elementum est, ipsum maecenas ligula nostra
non dui aliquet. purus pede. accumsan taciti.

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BLOCK SESSION WEEK 19

also known as C difficile.

2 The idea to use a dog like Angus started in 2014


after Teresa Zurberg, a Vancouver resident,
suffered a C difficile infection. The bacterial
infection, which attacks people whose immune
systems have been weakened by antibiotics, left
her in the hospital for five days and she lost 20
pounds. It was awful. I almost died, Zurberg
said.

3 Her husband, Markus, stumbled across an article on a dog in the Netherlands who had been
specially trained to check patients for C difficile. He wondered if Teresa a dog handler who trains
bomb- and drug-detecting dogs could do the same thing in Vancouver. I told him, If its got a smell,
I can teach a dog to find it, Teresa said. Their new puppy might be perfect for the job, she suggested.

4 The Zurbergs went to see their local health authority and were surprised by the enthusiastic reaction
they received. I was expecting them to laugh at us but they said: Hey, thats really cool.

5 Working with the health authority, Zurberg and Angus became part of a pilot programme. The hope,
said Nancy Desrosiers of Vancouver Coastal Health, was to find an innovative approach to try to solve
what has become a global problem. It is a vicious cycle, she said there is a rising number of
infections that result in longer hospital stays and increase the likelihood of further infections. In
Canada, 64% of all of our C difficile cases are acquired in hospital.

6 The dog in the Netherlands, who is now retired, sniffed patients but it was decided that Angus
would focus exclusively on searching for C difficile in the hospital environment. Hospitals normally
use ultraviolet light to find the bacteria but Angus can move much more quickly through rooms. Once
he detects the bacteria, the area is cleaned with a robot that uses ultraviolet light to disinfect 99.9% of
the C difficile spores.

RISE OF THE SUPERBUG


Antibiotics are important medicines that have been used to treat bacterial
infections for 70 years. They work by either disrupting processes bacteria
need to survive or preventing them from reproducing.

But these drugs are becoming less and less effective against bacterial
infections and could one day run out. Right now there arent any alternatives
that could take their place.

Its conceivable that in 20 years, treatments such as chemotherapy and


simple surgery will become impossible because they rely on antibiotics. We
are facing a future where a cough or cut could kill once again.

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7 They made the decision for Angus to work on environments not patients because this minimizes the
chances that he will affect patients who may have allergies or sensitivities to dogs. With the dogs role
in the hospital now clearly laid out, Zurberg began training Angus, using the same techniques for
training dogs to detect bombs or drugs. For the dogs, its just a game. To them, its just a way to get
what they really want, which is their toy or their food. The training took about ten months. After
passing a series of detection tests, Angus was brought into the hospital in the summer of 2016.

8 Angus is accompanied by Zurberg at all times during the four days a week he spends at the hospital.
Its a very multi-ethnic health authority and I have to be really conscious of whos around me and
what issues they may have with dogs, she said. Like any other member of the hospital staff, there is a
slight risk that Angus could be infected by C difficile. Hes young and healthy so his risks are
extremely low, Zurberg said.

9 His work at the hospital has attracted global attention and health authorities from Finland to Chile
have contacted Zurberg with questions about copying the idea. The aim, said Zurberg, is to develop a
programme that would train other dogs to sniff out C difficile and make them available to hospitals
around the world.

10 Zurberg becomes excited as she contemplates the possibility that Angus might hold the key to
regaining control over a superbug that has affected so many people around the world. So many
people come up to me and say: My dad died of C diff or This person in my family has C diff and they
thank me for what were doing, she said. It opens the door to other possibilities what else can we
have a dog detect? Were only limited by our imagination.

Guardian News and Media 2017 First published in The Guardian, 12/01/17

Comprehension check
Are these statements true (T) or false (F)
according to the text?
5. Angus doesnt work directly with patients.
1. Markus Zurberg got the idea to train Angus to
detect the C difficile superbug from a colleague
6. Health authorities from Finland to Chile are
at the hospital.
already using dogs to detect C difficile.
2. Teresa Zurberg almost died from a C difficile
infection.

3. The local health authority laughed at the


Zurbergs when they suggested using a dog to
detect C difficile.

4. Using Angus is quicker than using ultraviolet


light to detect the bacteria.

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7. a two-word phrasal verb meaning explain
FIND THE WORD something clearly and carefully (para 7)
Find the following words or phrases in the text.
8. a verb meaning think very carefully about
1. a two-word phrasal verb meaning become more something (para 10)
lively (para 1)

2. an adverb meaning with an excited feeling


WORDS FOLLOWED BY
because you think something is going to happen PREPOSITIONS
(para 1)
of on at in to by
3. a two-word phrasal verb meaning find something
through smell (para 1) 1. result _______

4. a two-word noun phrase meaning the system in 2. laugh _______


your body that protects you against diseases (para 2)
3. accompanied _______
5. a two-word phrasal verb meaning find something
by accident (para 3) 4. conscious _______

6. a two-word noun phrase meaning a process in 5. focus _______


which the existence of a problem causes other
problems and this makes the original problem worse
6. an allergy _______
(para 5)

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