Reading exercise for Class 9 CBSE

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow.

We are constantly being told to watch what we eat, lest we should unwittingly damage our heart. How does the heart function and why is it so important? The heart keeps oxygen rich blood flowing throughout the body by working as a pumping machine. All the cells in our body need a constant supply of oxygen. Our brain cells can live for only five minutes after the supply of oxygen to them is cut off. Imagine what would happen if they are deprived of oxygen for more than five minutes. The man will certainly die.

Yet until 1953, none of the doctors dared to touch the heart. The invention of the heart-lung by-pass machine, by Dr. John Gibbon of the US, made it possible for doctors to work on a damaged heart without hindering the passage of blood. As the name suggests the machine could temporarily take over from the heart and the lungs.

Dr. Christian Bernard put his patient, Washkausky, on the heart-lung machine when he carried out the world’s first successful open heart surgery. He was the first person who carried out a human-to-human heart transplant on December 3, 1967 in Cape Town, South Africa. It was done on a South African grocer who would most certainly die without the heart transplant. Meanwhile, the donor, Denise Darvell, was a young woman killed in an accident. The heart transplant surgery surprised the whole world. And Dr. Christian Barnard became a world famous heart surgeon overnight. He is also credited with creating a new design for artificial heart valves and correcting the problem of the blood supply the foetus during pregnancy.

Questions

1. What will happen if the brain cells do not receive oxygen for more than five minutes?

2. Why is the function of heart so important?

3. What made Dr. Christian Bernard a household name?

4. Apart from the heart transplant surgery what else is attributed to Dr. Christian Bernard?

5. What is meant by ‘lest’?

6. Find the word opposite to ‘knowingly’.

7. Find the word opposite to ‘irregular.’

Answers

1. The brain cells will die if they do not receive oxygen for more than 5 minutes.

2. The heart keeps oxygen-rich blood flowing throughout the body by working as a pumping machine.

3. The heart transplant surgery made Dr. Christian Bernard a household name.

4. He is also credited with the invention of a new design for artificial heart valves and finding a solution to the problem of blood supply to the foetus during pregnancy.

5. To avoid the risk of

6. Unwittingly

7. Constantly