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READING PASSAGE 1

Diseases are a natural part of life on Earth. If there were no diseases, the population would grow too quickly, and there would not be enough food or other resources. So in a way, diseases are nature’s way of keeping the Earth in balance. But sometimes they spread very quickly and kill large numbers of people. For example, in 1918, an outbreak of the flu spread across the world, killing over 25 million people in only six months. Such terrible outbreaks of a disease are called pandemics.

Pandemics happen when a disease changes in a way that our bodies are not prepared to fight. In 1918, a new type of flu virus appeared. Our bodies had no way to fight this new flu virus, and so it spread very quickly and killed large numbers of people. While there have been many different pandemic diseases throughout history, all of them have a few things in common.

First, all pandemic diseases spread from one person to another very easily. Second, while they may kill many people, they generally do not kill people very quickly. A good example of this would be the Marburg virus. The Marburg virus is an extremely infectious disease. In addition, it is deadly. About 70-80% of all the people who get the Marburg virus die from the disease. However, the Marburg virus has not become a pandemic because most people die within three days of getting the disease. This means that the virus does not have enough time to spread to a large number of people. The flu virus of 1918, on the other hand, generally took about a week to ten days to kill its victims, so it had more time to spread.

While we may never be able to completely stop pandemics, we can make them less common. Doctors carefully monitor new diseases that they fear could become pandemics. For example, in 2002 and 2003, doctors carefully watched SARS. Their health warnings may have prevented SARS from becoming a pandemic.

READING PASSAGE 2

Kimonos came to Japan from China. They were worn underneath clothes as an undergarment. “Kimono” was the Japanese word for clothing. Now however, the word “kimono” refers to one type of Japanese dress. Kimonos are robes with long sleeves. The sleeves are very wide. Kimonos are also shaped like a “T.” People wear a very wide belt with their kimonos. This belt is called an “obi.” They are traditionally wrapped around your body from left to right. In fact, only the dead are wrapped right to left! There are different layers to traditional kimonos.

Kimonos became popular during the Heian period (the period from 794-1192). Before that, Japanese people wore a different style of clothing. They wore pants and shirts of different materials. During the Heian period, a different type of clothing began being made. [A] People began cutting clothes in straight lines and sewing them together. This style of making clothes gave makers plenty of freedom. Seamstresses didn’t have to worry about size or body shape. Kimonos are made in all the same size for women, and all the same size for men. They are folded and tucked to make them fit each person. These kimonos were easy to fold compared to other traditional clothes. And different fabrics made kimonos suitable for all weather. Thick fabrics could be used for winter and thin linen for summer.

[B] Kimonos became more and more popular and the practice of making kimonos became an art form. These traditional dresses became very valuable and parents passed them down to their children as valuable gifts. [C] They would put their family crest on their kimonos. During traditional ceremonies, they would wear these kimonos to show which family they belonged to. Married women had a different style of kimono than single women and mothers also had to teach their daughters how to wear kimonos. Putting a kimono on was a difficult process. Nowadays, there are schools that teach you how to properly wear a kimono. [D]

Now the most popular fabric to make kimonos with is silk. Silk is an expensive fabric. The cost of the fabric has made kimonos much less popular these days. A kimono could cost you thousands of dollars! And the belt (obi) could be even more expensive. This has made the kimono less popular than in history. Today if you travel to Japan, you will not see as many as you did in the past. However, many tourists and Japanese locals like to dress up in kimonos for fun. The western world has adopted the traditional Japanese kimono. If you go into a clothing store in the United States and ask for a kimono, you will be given a long light fabric robe. It is a popular fashion for young women. However, traditional kimono fabric designers are considered very important in Japan. Their kimonos sell like an expensive painting. They create unique masterpieces. While most modern Japanese people do not own kimonos, they are still an important part of Japanese culture. They played a very big part in Japanese history. They are also instantly recognizable as a Japanese icon!