Page 57 - Giáo trình môn học Tiếng Anh chuyên ngành

Joseph Lister was a surgeon in England in the 1800s. He worried about the number of infections
during operations. At that time, almost one half of all people who had an operation died from
infection. Lister wanted to prevent these infections. Lister knew about Pasteur’s work with bacteria.
He thought that perhaps bacteria caused the infections after surgery. He knew that there were
many bacteria in dirty places. He decided to make the operating room cleaner. First, he sprayed
the air in the operating room with chemicals to kill germs. The spray was not enough. Too many
patients still had infections after surgery. Next, he looked at the instruments. He boiled them in hot
water to sterilize them. He used only very clean instruments. Fewer patients got infections. Then he
sterilized everything else. For example, he made sure that all medical workers in the operating room
washed their hands well and wore clean clothes.
At first, other surgeons did not believe in Lister’s ideas. However, Lister’s surgery patients rarely
died from infections after their operations. The number of deaths fell from 50% to 2 or 3%. Then
other surgeons began to sterilize the operating rooms, and surgery became much safer for all.

Did you understand the reading?
Write T for true and F for false.

_____ 1. Bacteria is visible without a microscope.
_____ 2. Bacteria cause disease.
_____ 3. Joseph Lister was not a doctor.
_____ 4. Fifty percent of all surgery patients died before Lister began to sterilize the operating
room.
_____ 5. Lister believed bacteria caused infection after operations.
_____ 6. Sterilize means to make clean.
_____ 7. Many of Lister’s patients died from operations.
_____ 8. Only two or three of Lister’s patients died.
_____ 9. Lister sterilized the operating room, the instruments, and the workers’ hand and clothes.
_____ 10. Other surgeons never believed Lister’s sterilization prevented infections.

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