Text B

Even in health the air passages carry potentially dangerous bacteria and the lungs are continually exposed to infection by microorganisms in the air. Nothing happens unless resistance is lowered as by a disease. In such conditions the lungs are very vulnerable. Infection primarily of the trachea and bronchi causes bronchitis which can very easily become chronic particularly where the continuous irritation of smoking exists. The characteristic symptoms of chronic bronchitis is a regular cough with sputum.

Inflammation of the lungs from infection by viruses or bacteria is pneumonia. Pneumonia can be classified by the distribution of the affected alveoli. In lobular pneumonia the whole of one lung or segment is involved. Bronchopneumonia affects groups of alveoli close to the larger air passages so that small patches of inflammation are scattered through the lungs. Since the discovery of antibiotic drugs for treating infection there has been less emphasis on the various patterns of pneumonia and more on the species of microbe which determines the choice of drug.

IX. Answer the questions on the text B:

1. What is bronchitis?

2. What is the characteristic symptom of chronic bronchitis?

3. What is pneumonia?

4. What can pneumonia be classified by?