Food allergies - PAEG inglés CLM

Are you hungry? Perhaps you would like a peanut butter sandwich and some milk. For some people – including two million US teenagers – such foods could cause a severe adverse reaction, or even death.

Potentially life-threatening allergies to food are common among children and are often outgrown over time, although allergies to peanuts or other nuts almost never disappear. Sometimes, an allergic person may suffer a reaction from simply touching or smelling the dangerous food.

An allergic reaction is a mistake made by the body. It may identify certain foods as harmful and try to attack the “threat” by releasing chemicals such as histamine, which cause an allergic reaction. The reaction may prove fatal if the vocal chords swell shut, leading to suffocation. Or the sufferer may experience an anaphylactic reaction, which results in a decrease in the flow of blood to the heart, lungs or brain, leading to seizures and, possibly, to death.

Allergic individuals are encouraged to wear medical alert bracelets, and carry anti-histamine for immediate injection if necessary. But recent research shows that teenagers often ignore these precautions partly because they want to conform and partly because they tend to minimise the risks. Certainly, living with a potentially fatal food allergy can be difficult for teenagers. They have to cope with telling new acquaintances about their allergy, eating carefully in restaurants, and reading labels on food packaging. And, since even kissing someone who has recently eaten a forbidden food can trigger a reaction, they may even have to ask their dates to brush their teeth before kissing!

So the next time you reach for some peanuts, remember those who can’t. Some people avoid peanuts because they are fattening or can cause skin problems, but for a small minority, those peanuts are a killer.

READING COMPREHENSION

Add TRUE or FALSE and copy the evidence from the text to support your answer. NO marks are given for only true or false.

1.    Food must be eaten in order to cause an allergic reaction.

• FALSE (paragraph 2) “Sometimes, an allergic person may suffer a reaction from simply touching or smelling the dangerous food.”

2.    An allergic reaction results from the production of histamine.

• TRUE (paragraph 3) “by releasing chemicals such as histamine, which cause an allergic reaction.”

3.    An anaphylactic reaction eventually affects important body organs.

• TRUE (paragraph 3) “an anaphylactic reaction, which results in a decrease in the flow of blood to the heart, lungs or brain”

4.    A recent study shows that allergic teenagers are concerned about the risks.

• FALSE (paragraph 4) “recent research shows that teenagers ... tend to minimise the risks.”

LEXICON

Find words or phrases in the text that mean the same as these given.

1.    something that is incorrect: a mistake (paragraph 3)
2.    dangerous: harmful (paragraph 3)
3.    start: trigger (paragraph 4)   
4.    stay away from: avoid (paragraph 5)

PHONETICS

Find words in the text with the following phonemes.

1.  Write two words from the text that have the same diphthong sound as “near”. (Underline the part of the word which contains the diphthong.) severe, disappear

2.    Which of the following words has the same vowel sound as “bed”?

       1. peanut    2. alert    3. death

3.    Is the “-s” pronounced /z/ or /s/ in “cause”? /z/

USE OF ENGLISH

Rewrite the following sentences starting with the words given.

1. Allergies among children are often outgrown over time.   

Over time, children often outgrow allergies.

2 Living with a potentially fatal food allergy can be difficult for teenagers.   

It can be difficult for teenagers to live with a potentially fatal food allergy.

3.   Teenagers often ignore allergy precautions.   

Allergy precautions are often ignored by teenagers.

4.    Eating a forbidden food can trigger a reaction.   

If you eat a forbidden food, you / it can trigger a reaction.

5.    I can’t eat this cake because I’m allergic to nuts.   

If I weren’t allergic to nuts, I would / could eat this cake.

6. “Did you have any allergies as a child?” he asked me.   

He wanted to know if I had had any allergies as a child.

+EXÁMENES RESUELTOS