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Day 17 · Health & Medicine · B2 Level

The Discovery of Penicillin

Daily Reading Practice · Nonfiction passage

⏱ Time target: 6-7 minutes 📖 Reading + Vocabulary ✅ 10 True / False questions
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Reading Passage

The discovery of penicillin is one of the greatest medical breakthroughsbreakthrough (noun)Important discoveries or achievements.Synonym: advances🇺🇿UZ: yutuqlar🇷🇺RU: прорывы in history. It changed the way doctors treattreat (verb)To give medical care to someone.Synonym: cure🇺🇿UZ: davolamoq🇷🇺RU: лечить infectionsinfection (noun)Illnesses caused by germs entering the body.Synonym: illnesses🇺🇿UZ: infeksiyalar🇷🇺RU: инфекции and has saved millions of lives. What makes this discovery even more interesting is that it happened almost by accidentaccident (noun)An unexpected event happening by chance.Synonym: chance event🇺🇿UZ: tasodif🇷🇺RU: случайность.

In 1928, a scientist named Alexander Fleming was working in his laboratorylaboratory (noun)A room used for scientific research.Synonym: lab🇺🇿UZ: laboratoriya🇷🇺RU: лаборатория in London. Fleming was studying bacteriabacteria (noun)Microscopic living organisms, some causing disease.Synonym: microbes🇺🇿UZ: bakteriyalar🇷🇺RU: бактерии, trying to understand how they grow and how to stop them. One day, before going on holiday, he left some platesplate (noun)Shallow dishes used to grow bacteria in a lab.Synonym: petri dishes🇺🇿UZ: laboratoriya tovoqchalari🇷🇺RU: чашки Петри with bacteria on his workbenchworkbench (noun)A sturdy table used for practical work.Synonym: work table🇺🇿UZ: ish stoli🇷🇺RU: рабочий стол. When he returned, he noticed something strangestrange (adj)Unusual or unexpected.Synonym: odd🇺🇿UZ: g'alati🇷🇺RU: странный. On one of the plates, a mouldmould (noun)A furry growth of fungus.Synonym: fungus🇺🇿UZ: mog'or🇷🇺RU: плесень had started to grow. What caught his attention was that no bacteria were growing near the mould. It seemed as if the mould was killingkill (verb)Causing something to die.Synonym: destroying🇺🇿UZ: o'ldirayotgan🇷🇺RU: убивающий them.

Fleming decided to study this further. He found that the mould producedproduce (verb)Made or generated something.Synonym: generated🇺🇿UZ: ishlab chiqargan🇷🇺RU: производила a substancesubstance (noun)A particular kind of matter.Synonym: material🇺🇿UZ: modda🇷🇺RU: вещество that stopped the growth of bacteria. He named this substance penicillin, after the type of mould, Penicillium. However, while Fleming realisedrealise (verb)Became aware of something.Synonym: understood🇺🇿UZ: angladi🇷🇺RU: осознал penicillin's power, he was unableunable (adj)Not able to do something.Synonym: incapable🇺🇿UZ: qodir emas🇷🇺RU: неспособный to produce it in large amountsamount (noun)Quantities of something.Synonym: quantities🇺🇿UZ: miqdorlar🇷🇺RU: количества or turn it into a medicinemedicine (noun)A substance used to treat illness.Synonym: drug🇺🇿UZ: dori🇷🇺RU: лекарство.

The next step came about 10 years later. A teamteam (noun)A group of people working together.Synonym: group🇺🇿UZ: jamoa🇷🇺RU: команда of scientists in Oxford, led by Howard Florey and Ernst Chain, took Fleming's discovery and found a way to turn penicillin into a drugdrug (noun)A substance used as a medicine.Synonym: medication🇺🇿UZ: dori-darmon🇷🇺RU: препарат that could be used to treat people. During World War II, penicillin was used to treat soldiers' woundswound (noun)Injuries in which the skin is broken.Synonym: injuries🇺🇿UZ: yaralar🇷🇺RU: раны and infections. It became known as the "wonder drugwonder drug (noun)A medicine seen as remarkably effective.Synonym: miracle drug🇺🇿UZ: mo''jizaviy dori🇷🇺RU: чудо-лекарство" because it was so effectiveeffective (adj)Producing the intended result.Synonym: successful🇺🇿UZ: samarali🇷🇺RU: эффективный.

Penicillin was the first antibioticantibiotic (noun)A medicine that fights bacterial infections.Synonym: antibacterial drug🇺🇿UZ: antibiotik🇷🇺RU: антибиотик, a type of medicine that fights infections caused by bacteria. Before penicillin, people often died from simplesimple (adj)Not complicated; easy.Synonym: basic🇺🇿UZ: oddiy🇷🇺RU: простой infections or injuriesinjury (noun)Physical harm done to the body.Synonym: wounds🇺🇿UZ: jarohatlar🇷🇺RU: травмы. Today, antibiotics have become a key part of modernmodern (adj)Relating to the present or recent times.Synonym: contemporary🇺🇿UZ: zamonaviy🇷🇺RU: современный medicine.

However, penicillin also reminds us of the importance of using antibiotics carefullycarefully (adverb)With close attention; cautiously.Synonym: cautiously🇺🇿UZ: ehtiyotkorlik bilan🇷🇺RU: осторожно. Overuseoveruse (noun)Excessive or too-frequent use of something.Synonym: excessive use🇺🇿UZ: haddan tashqari ishlatish🇷🇺RU: чрезмерное использование has led to some bacteria becoming resistantresistant (adj)Not affected or harmed by something.Synonym: immune🇺🇿UZ: chidamli🇷🇺RU: устойчивый, meaning the drugs no longer work against them. Scientists continue to searchsearch (verb)To try to find something.Synonym: look for🇺🇿UZ: qidirmoq🇷🇺RU: искать for new antibiotics to deal with this problem.

◆ Micro-task Write what this text is mainly about.

Check Your Understanding — True / False