Does Water Have Memory IELTS Reading Academic

Reading Passage 3

Does Water Have Memory?

A.
The practice of homoeopathy was first developed by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. During research in the 1790s, Hahnemann began experimenting with quinine, an alkaloid derived from cinchona bark that was well known at the time to tướng have a positive effect on fever. Hahnemann started dosing himself with quinine while in a state of good health and reported in his journals that his extremities went cold, he experienced palpitations, “infinite anxiety”, a trembling and weakening of the limbs, reddening cheeks and thirst.

“In short,” he concluded, “all the symptoms of relapsing fever presented themselves successively…” Hahnemann’s main observation was that things which create problems for healthy people cure those problems in sick people, and this became his first principle of homoeopathy: similia similibus (with help from the same). While diverging from the principle of apothecary practice at the time, which was contraria contrariis (with help from the opposite), the efficacy of similia similibus was reaffirmed by subsequent developments in the field of vaccinations. Hahnemann’s second principle was minimal dosing – treatments should be taken in the most diluted format which they remain effective. In case it negated any possible toxic effects of similia similibus.

B.
In 1988, the French immunologist Jacques Benveniste took minimal dosing to tướng new extremes when he published a paper in the prestigious scientific journal. Nature in which he suggested that very high dilutions of the antibody could affect human basophil granulocytes, the least common of the granulocytes that trang điểm about 0.01% to tướng 0.3% of white blood cells. The point of controversy, however, was that the water in Benveniste’s test had been so sánh diluted that any molecular evidence of the antibodies no longer existed.

Water molecules, the researcher concluded, had a biologically active component that a journalist later termed “water memory”. A number of efforts from scientists in Britain, France and the Netherlands to tướng duplicate Benveniste’s research were unsuccessful, however, and to tướng this day, no peer-reviewed study under broadly accepted conditions has been able to tướng confirm the validity of “water memory”.

C.
The third principle of homoeopathy is “the single remedy”. Exponents of this principle believe that it would be too difficult, if not impossible, to tướng ascertain the potential effects of multiple homoeopathic remedies delivered simultaneously. If it did work, they suggest, one could not know quite why it worked, turning homoeopathy into an ambiguous guessing game. If it did not work, neither patient nor practitioner would know whether the ingredients were all ineffective, or whether they were only ineffective in combination with one another.

D.
Combination remedies are gaining in popularity, but classical homoeopaths who rely on the single remedy approach warn these are not more potent, nor vì thế they provide more treatment options. The availability of combination remedies, these homoeopaths suggest, has been led by consumers wanting more options, not from homoeopathic research indicating their efficacy.

E.
Homoeopathy is an extremely contentious size of medicine, with strong assertions coming from both critics and supporters of the practice. “Homoeopathy: There’s nothing in it” announces the tag line to tướng 10:23, a major British anti-homoeopathy chiến dịch. At 10:23 am on 30 January 2010, over 400 supporters of the 10:23 stood outside Boots pharmacies and swallowed an entire bottle of homoeopathic pills in an attempt to tướng raise awareness about the fact that these remedies are made of sugar and water, with no active components. This, defenders of homoeopathy say, is entirely the point. Homoeopathic products vì thế not rely on ingredients that become toxic at high doses, because the water retains the “memory” that allows the original treatment to tướng function.

F.
Critics also point out the fact that homoeopathic preparations have no systematic design to tướng them, making it hard to tướng monitor whether or not a particular treatment has been efficacious. Homoeopaths embrace this uncertainty. While results may be less certain, they argue, the non-toxic nature of homoeopathy means that practitioner and patient can experiment until they find something that works without concern for side effects. Traditional medicine, they argue, assaults the body toàn thân with a cocktail of drugs that only tackles the symptoms of a disease, while homoeopathy has its sights aimed at the causes. Homoeopaths suggest this approach leads to tướng kinder, gentler, more effective treatment.

G.
Finally, critics allege that when homoeopathy has produced good results, these are exceedingly dependent on the placebo effect, and cannot justify the resources, time and expense that the homoeopathic tradition absorbs. The placebo effect is a term that describes beneficial outcomes from a treatment that can be attributed to tướng the patient’s expectations concerning the treatment rather than thở from the treatment itself. Basically, the patient “thinks” himself into feeling better. Defenders suggest that homoeopathy can go beyond this psychological level. They point to tướng the successful results of homoeopathy on patients who are unconscious at the time of treatment, as well as on animals.

Questions 27-32
Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-K, below.
Write the correct letter, A-K, in boxes 27-32 on your answer sheet.

27. In the late 18th century, Hahnemann discovered that quinine was able to tướng ________
28. The effectiveness of vaccinations also helps to tướng ________
29. Benveniste argued in the journal Nature that water molecules possess the ability to tướng ________
30. Attempts to tướng verify Benveniste’s findings were unable to tướng ________
31. The purpose of the single remedy is to ________
32. Classical homoeopaths suggest combination remedies have been created to tướng ________

A. avoid the unpredictable outcome of combining many remedies at once
B. explain the success of 18th-century apothecary, medicine.
C. produce fever-like symptoms in a healthy person.
D. keep antibody molecules active in parts as low as 0.01%.
E. tư vấn the notion of similia similibus.
F. offer more remedial choice.
G. produce a less effective dose.
H. recreate the original results.
I. retain qualities of an antibody to tướng which they were previously exposed.
J. satisfy the demand for hovers.
K. treat effectively someone with a fever.

Questions 33-40
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the text for each answer.

Does Water Have Memory IELTS Reading Answers

27. C

28. E

29. I

30. H

31. A

32. J

33. ACTIVE

34. TOXIC

35. SYSTEMATIC DESIGN

36. MONITOR

37. SIDE-EFFECT

38. SYMPTOMS

39. PLACEBO EFFECT

40. UNCONSCIOUS

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