Lesson No. 13 Sir Alexander Fleming Question Answers

Short an Simple Question Answers

Solution of Exercise

Q1: What are antiseptics and what is the antiseptic method?

Ans: Antiseptics are chemical that kills germs. Antiseptic method is a method in which antiseptic chemicals are used to free tools from germs. Mostly there antiseptics are use to wash medical fools to prevent the germs getting into the body of patients.

Q2: What was the chief defect of antiseptic method?

Ans: The chief defect of antiseptic method was that it killed the germs and also destroyed the body cells, called leucocytes which fight against disease. Antiseptics killed these resistive body cells which was not a good thing for the patient.

Q3: What part is played by the white cells in the blood of a human body?

Ans: The white cells are also called leucocytes. They protect the body form the attack of diseases. They are the natural armour against germs which attack the body. The disease is basically a fight between leucocytes and the attacking germs.

Q4: Give an account of the early life of Fleming.

Ans: Alexander Fleming was born on a farm near Darvel, in Ayrshire, on August 6, 1881. He was the youngest of a family of eight. His father died when he was seven years old, and his eldest brother, Hugh, took over the management of the farm. Alexander was then still going to the village school. At ten he went to. Darvel School, and stayed till he was twelve. That was the age-limit. The question was then discussed whether he should continue his education or go back to the land. It was decided to keep him at school, and he went to Kilmarnock Academy. At fourteen he went to London, and for the next two years he studied at the Regent Street Polytechnic.

Q5: Describe how Fleming discovered penicillin.

Ans: Fleming was growing colonies of germs on cultural plates spread with agar. Plates were covered, but when he uncovered one of them, a piece of fungus came flying from somewhere and dropped on the plate. It began to grow, and the microbes (germs) round it began to disappear. It was a new discovery which killed germs. He called it penicillin.

Q6: In what respect is penicillin better than the chemical antiseptics?

Ans: Other antiseptics including carbolic acid killed leucocytes with the white cells of the body along germs. On the other hand penicillin killed germs only and did not harm leucocytes or white cells of the body. These white cells defend body against disease.

Q7: What do you know of the Oxford team?

Ans: The Oxford team included trained chemists as well as bacteriologists, and had all the equipment that Fleming had lacked; yet it was a long, hard struggle before they succeeded in producing a practical concentration of penicillin. The first human cases were treated in 1941, and the problem then became a matter of production. One of the Oxford team went to America, where new methods of manufacturing were discovered, and in 1943 penicillin reached the Eighth Army in Egypt. In the words of Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, “The healing of war wounds was revolutionized.” Penicillin arrived just in time to save countless lives. It was easily the strongest weapon yet forged in the fight against disease.

Q8: How did they make penicillin more effective?

Ans: In its crude from, penicillin was unstable and could not be used for treatment. Fleming could not produce medicine with the help of penicillin because he had no necessary equipments for this purpose The oxford team went to America, where they discovered new me” uds to make penicillin more effective.

Q9: Write a note on penicillin as a wonder drug.

Ans: Penicillin was hailed a wonder drug. The healing of wounds was revolutionized. It proved the strongest weapon against the germs. It helped the doctors to save wounds from germs without harming the useful cells (white cells or leucocytes) of the body.

Q10: Was Fleming proud of his discovery?

Ans: Fleming protested that such gratitude was not due to him. “Everywhere I go people thank me for saving their lives,” he said, “I don’t know why they do it. I didn’t do anything; Nature makes penicillin. I just found it.” It was not just modesty that made him say this. It was a restatement of his belief in the healing power of Nature. He protested vigorously against the idea that penicillin was a man-made invention. I have been accused of inventing penicillin, but no man could have done that. Nature, in the form of a lowly vegetable, has been making it for thousands of years. I only discovered it.” And always he insisted that he discovered it by chance.

Q11: Why couldn’t penicillin have been discovered in the research laboratories of America?

Ans: The Americans visited the laboratory and were amazed. One said it was “like the backroom of an old-fashioned drug store.” He found it hard to believe that penicillin could have been discovered there. Fleming laughed, and in Detroit, where he was shown over the last word in research laboratories-a gleaming, dustless, air-conditioned, sterilized sanctum-he shocked his hosts by saying, “Wonderful, but penicillin could never have been discovered in a lab like this.” When they saw the point they could not deny it. Their culture plates were never contaminated, for the air was too pure: there was no way in for spores of a common mould.

Q12: Fleming’s achievement paved the way for other discoveries in the medical field. What are they?

Ans: Fleming’s achievement was not only the discovery of penicillin. As the Surgeon-General of the United States Forces said, “Fleming, like Pasteur, has opened up a whole new world of science.” He founded the antibiotic-that is, growth inhibiting treatment of disease. He provoked others to seek new antibiotics, and all research-workers to be on the lookout for them, particularly in moulds and fungi; and out of these researches, which but for Fleming would not have been started came new drugs, made by nature and at last discovered by man, of which the best known at present is streptomycin. Fleming himself regarded this as the most important result of his work. Even before penicillin was in general use, he said, “The greatest benefit penicillin has conferred is not to the drug itself but the fact that its discovery has stimulated new research to find something better.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who discovered germs?
   A. Fleming
   B. Pasteur
   C. Metchnikoff✅
   D. Lister
2. Alexander’s brother was an Oculist. The underlined word means
   A. Physician
   B. Cardiologist
   C. Optician✅
   D. Dentist
3. A mould spore dropped on the plate. The underlined phrase can b replaced by which word?
   A. A piece of string
   B. A piece of cotton
   C. Fungus✅
   D. A dust particle
4. Choose the correct spelling.
   A. Vaccine
   B. Vaccine✅
   C. Vacsinne
   D. Vaccinne
5. The man waited till the night came. The underlined part is a/an
   A. Main clause
   B. Subordinate douse✅
   C. Relative clause
   D. Complement
6. My uncle, a businessman, lives in Karachi. The underlined part is a/an
   A. Main clause
   B. Subordinate clause
   C. Appositive phrase✅
   D. Appositive clause
7. Zeeshan bought Hina a bunch of flower. The underlined part is a/an
   A. Direct object✅
   B. Indirect object
   C. Complement
   D. Relative clause