Read the following passage and answer the questions given below:
Another group of diseases in due to food which does
not contain enough of one or another of vitamins. The first diseases which were
conclusively shown to be of this kind were scurvy and beri-beri. The former was
common among sailors who were restricted to such food as ship’s biscuits and
salt meat on long voyages. The latter is mainly found in rice-eating countries
such as Javaand Japan.
The sailors who died of scurvy called attention to the
problem and saved the babies born a hundred years later from a good deal of
suffering and a certain number of deaths. Later, rickets fell into the line,
although many doctors had ascribed it to lack of sunshine or bad heredity. They
were probably right in both cases, no matter how had its heredity or how dark
its home, provided it is given enough vitamin D to eat.
Questions:
(i) (a) Name two diseases which are due to want of a particular
vitamin.
(b) Why is it that scurvy was common among sailors?
(c) Which disease is common in rice eating countries?
(d) How did the sailors save babies born a hundred
years later?
(ii) Rewrite the following sentences replacing the word/phrase
in brackets with a word or phrase from the above passage to express
the same meaning.
(a) We have (sufficient) food to last the winter
months.
(b) She had to face (much) trouble in rearing her
children
