History · Level 5 · 217 words
The First Vaccine
Original passage © Team AM, written for Hone Literacy.
For most of history, a disease called smallpox was one of the deadliest threats people faced. It spread easily and left survivors scarred, and it killed a great many of those it infected. People had long searched for a way to protect themselves, and over time some had noticed a curious fact.
In the late 1700s, an English doctor named Edward Jenner paid attention to a piece of common knowledge among country people. Milkmaids who had caught cowpox, a mild disease passed from cows, almost never seemed to get smallpox. Jenner wondered whether the mild illness somehow shielded them from the deadly one.
To test his idea, he took material from a cowpox sore and introduced a small amount into a healthy boy. The boy developed only a mild reaction. Later, when Jenner exposed the boy to smallpox, the child did not become sick. The mild disease had indeed protected him.
Jenner called his method vaccination, from the Latin word for cow. His work did not explain why the protection happened, for the science of germs was not yet understood. Even so, the practice spread, and over the following centuries, careful programs of vaccination reduced and eventually wiped out smallpox entirely. Jenner's careful observation of an everyday fact became the foundation of one of medicine's greatest achievements.
Comprehension questions
1. What is the central idea of the passage?
- A Smallpox was a harmless disease
- B Jenner's observation of cowpox led to the first vaccine and eventually ended smallpox
- C Milkmaids invented medicine
- D Cows are dangerous animals
Show answer
B. Jenner's observation of cowpox led to the first vaccine and eventually ended smallpox
The passage traces how Jenner's observation led to vaccination and the eventual end of smallpox.
2. What everyday observation gave Jenner his idea?
- A Doctors rarely got sick
- B Milkmaids who had caught cowpox almost never got smallpox
- C Cows could not catch smallpox
- D Children never caught smallpox
Show answer
B. Milkmaids who had caught cowpox almost never got smallpox
The text says he noticed milkmaids with cowpox almost never got smallpox.
3. Why is it notable that Jenner could not explain why his method worked?
- A He kept the method secret
- B The science of germs was not yet understood, yet the method still worked
- C He guessed wrongly about cowpox
- D He never tested the idea
Show answer
B. The science of germs was not yet understood, yet the method still worked
The passage notes the germ science was not yet known, so the method worked before its cause was understood.
Source: Written for Hone Literacy. Original passage © Team AM, written for Hone Literacy.