Read the passage carefully. Select the answer from the four alternatives given…
2024
Read the passage carefully. Select the answer from the four alternatives given below each question.
The human body can tolerate only a small range of temperature, especially when the person is engaged in vigorous activity. Heat reactions usually occur when large amounts of water and/or salt are lost through excessive sweating following strenuous exercise. When the body becomes overheated and can not eliminate this excess heat, heat exhaustion and heat stroke are possible.
Heat exhaustion is generally characterised by clammy skin, fatigue, nausea, dizziness, profuse perspiration, and sometimes fainting, resulting from an inadequate intake of water and the loss of fluids. First aid treatment for this condition includes having the victim lie down, raising the feet 8 to 12 inches, applying cool, wet cloths to the skin, and giving the victims sips of salt water over a 1-hour period.
Heat stroke is much more serious; it is an immediate life-threatening situation. The characteristics of heat stroke are a high body temperature (which may reach 106° F or more); a rapid pulse; hot and dry skin; and a blocked sweating mechanism; victims of this condition may be unconscious, and first-aid measures should be directed at quickly cooling the body. The victim should be placed in a tub of cold water or repeatedly sponged with cool water until his or her temperature is sufficiently lowered.
Question: Symptoms such as nausea and dizziness in a heat exhaustion victim indicate that the person most likely needs to
- A.
be immediately taken to a hospital
- B.
be given more salt water
- C.
be immersed in a tub of water
- D.
sweat more
Attempted by 6 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Concept
In a reading-comprehension question, the answer must be drawn from what the passage itself states about cause and remedy, not from outside medical knowledge. Identify the condition named in the question, find where the passage explains why that condition arises, and choose the remedy the passage ties directly to that cause.
Application
The question is about a heat-exhaustion victim showing nausea and dizziness. The passage tells us two things about heat exhaustion:
Its cause: it results from an inadequate intake of water and the loss of fluids; in other words, the body is short of the water and salt lost through heavy sweating.
Its first-aid treatment: lay the victim down, raise the feet, apply cool wet cloths, and give the victim sips of salt water over a 1-hour period.
Because the cause is loss of water and salt, the remedy the passage prescribes is replacing that lost fluid and salt, that is, giving the victim more salt water. So the symptoms point to a need for salt water.
Why the other choices do not fit
Immersion in a tub of cold water is the cooling step the passage reserves for heat stroke, which it calls much more serious and immediately life-threatening, a different condition from heat exhaustion; a hospital visit is not mentioned anywhere in the passage.
Sweating more would worsen the situation: excessive sweating is exactly what drained the water and salt in the first place, so it is the opposite of what the victim needs.