Fleas are perfectly designed by
nature to feast on anything containing blood. Like a shark in the water or a
wolf in the woods, fleas are ideally equipped to do what they do, making them
very difficult to defeat. The bodies of these tiny parasites are extremely
hardy and well-suited for their job.
A flea has a very hard exoskeleton,
which means the body is covered by a tough, tile-like plate called a sclerite.
Because of these plates, fleas are almost impossible to squish. The
exoskeletons of fleas are also waterproof of fleas are also waterproof and shock
resistant, and therefore fleas are highly resistant to the sprays and chemicals
used to kill them.
Little spines are attached to his
plate. The spine the flea scurries through an animal’s fur in – search of
grooming pet tries to pull a flea off through the hair coat, these spines will
extend and stick to the fur like Velcro.
Fleas are some of the best jumpers
in the natural world. A flea can jump seven inches, or 150 times its own
length, either vertically or horizontally. An equivalent jump for a person
would be 555 feet, the height of the Washington Monument. Fleas can jump 30,000
times in a row without stopping, and they are able to accelerate through the
air at an incredibly high rate – a rate which is over ten times what humans can
withstand in an airplane.
Fleas have very long rear legs with
huge thigh muscles and multiple joints. When they get ready to jump. They fold their
long legs up and crouch like a runner on a staring block. Several of their
joints contain a protein called resilin, which helps catapult fleas into the
air as they jump, similar to the way a rubber band provides momentum to a
slingshot. Outward facing claws on the bottom of their legs grip anything they
touch when they land.
The adult female flea mates after
her first blood meal and begins producing eggs in just 1 to 2 days. One flea
can lay up to 50 eggs in one day and over 2,000 in her lifetime. Flea eggs can
be seen with the naked eye, but they are about the size of a grain of salt. Shortly
after being laid, the eggs begin to transform into cocoons. In the cocoon
state, fleas are fully developed adults, and will hatch immediately if
conditions are favorable. Fleas can detect warmth, movement, and carbon dioxide
in exhaled breath, and these three factors stimulate them to emerge as new
adults. If the flea does not detect appropriate conditions, it can remain
dormant in the cocoon state for extended periods. Under ideal conditions, the
entire life cycle may only take 3 weeks, so in no time at all, pets and homes
can become infested.
Because of these characteristics,
fleas are intimidating opponents. The best way to control fleas, therefore, is
to take steps to prevent an infestation from ever occurring.
Based on information in the passage,
the reader can understand that
Each nation has its own peculiar character
which distinguishes it from others. But the people of the world have more
points in which they are all like each other than points in which they are
different. One type of person that is common in every country is the one who
always tried to do as little as he possibly can and to get as much in return as
he can. His opposite, the man who is in the habit of doing more than is
strictly necessary and is ready to accept what is offered in return, is rare
everywhere.
Both these types are usually unconscious of
their character. The man who avoids effort is always talking about his ‘rights’;
he appears to think that society owes him a pleasant easy life. The man who is
always doing more than his sheer talks of ‘duties’ feels that the individual is
in debt to society, and not society to the individual. As a result of their
view, neither of these men thinks that he behaves at all strangely.
The man who talks about his ‘rights’:
Recent advances in science and technology have made it
possible for geneticists to find out abnormalities in the unborn foetus and
take remedial action to rectify some defects which would otherwise prove to be
fatal to the child. Though genetic engineering is still at its infancy,
scientists can now predict with greater accuracy a genetic disorder. It is not
yet an exact science since they are not in a position to predict when exactly a
genetic disorder will set in. While they have not yet been able to change the
genetic order of the gene in germs, they are optimistic and are holding out
that in the near future they might be successful in achieving this feat. They
have, however, acquired the ability in manipulating tissue cells. However,
genetic mis-information can sometimes be damaging for it may adversely affect
people psychologically. Genetic information may lead to a tendency to brand
some people as inferiors. Genetic information can therefore be abused and its
application in deciding the sex of the foetus and its subsequent abortion is
now hotly debated on ethical lines. But on this issue geneticists cannot be
squarely blamed though this charge has often been leveled at them. It is mainly
a societal problem. At present genetic engineering is a costly process of
detecting disorders but scientists hope to reduce the costs when technology
becomes more advanced. This is why much progress in this area has been possible
in scientifically advanced and rich countries like the U.S.A., U.K. and Japan.
It remains to be seen if in the future this science will lead to the
development of a race of supermen or will be able to obliterate disease from
this world.
According to the author,
the present state of knowledge about heredity has mad geneticists
When her grandmother’s health began to deteriorate in the
fall of 1994, Mary would make the drive from Washington, DC to Winchester every
few days.
She hated highway driving, finding it ugly and monotonous. She
preferred to take meandering back roads to her grandmother’s hospital. When she
drove through the rocky town of Harpers Ferry, the beauty of the rough waters
churning at the intersection of the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers always
captivated her.
Toward the end of her journey, Mary had to get on highway
81. It was here that she discovered a surprising bit of beauty during one of
her trips. Along the median of the highway, there was a long stretch of
wildflowers. They were thin and delicate and purple, and swayed in the wind as
if whispering poems to each other.
The first time she saw the flowers, Mary was seized by an uncontrollable
urge to pull over on the highway and yank a bunch from the soil. She carried
them into her grandmother’s room when she arrived at the hospital and placed
them in a water pitcher by her bed. For a moment her grandmother seemed more
lucid than usual. She thanked Mary for the flowers, commented on their beauty
and asked where she had gotten them. Mary was overjoyed by the ability of the
flowers to wake something up inside her ailing grandmother.
Afterwards, Mary began carrying scissors in the car during
her trips to visit her grandmother. She would quickly glide onto the shoulder,
jump out of the car, and clip a bunch of flowers. Each time Mary placed the
flowers in the pitcher, her grandmother’s eyes would light up and they would
have a splendid conversation.
One morning in late October, Mary got a call that her
grandmother had taken a turn for the worse. Mary was in such a hurry to get to
her grandmother that she sped past her flower spot. She decided to turn around
head several miles back, and cut a bunch. Mary arrived at the hospital to find her
grandmother very weak and unresponsive. She placed flowers in the pitcher and
sat down. She felt a squeeze on her fingers. It was the last conversation they
had.
What do the flowers come to signify most for Mary?
Fleas are perfectly designed by
nature to feast on anything containing blood. Like a shark in the water or a
wolf in the woods, fleas are ideally equipped to do what they do, making them
very difficult to defeat. The bodies of these tiny parasites are extremely
hardy and well-suited for their job.
A flea has a very hard exoskeleton,
which means the body is covered by a tough, tile-like plate called a sclerite.
Because of these plates, fleas are almost impossible to squish. The
exoskeletons of fleas are also waterproof of fleas are also waterproof and shock
resistant, and therefore fleas are highly resistant to the sprays and chemicals
used to kill them.
Little spines are attached to his
plate. The spine the flea scurries through an animal’s fur in – search of
grooming pet tries to pull a flea off through the hair coat, these spines will
extend and stick to the fur like Velcro.
Fleas are some of the best jumpers
in the natural world. A flea can jump seven inches, or 150 times its own
length, either vertically or horizontally. An equivalent jump for a person
would be 555 feet, the height of the Washington Monument. Fleas can jump 30,000
times in a row without stopping, and they are able to accelerate through the
air at an incredibly high rate – a rate which is over ten times what humans can
withstand in an airplane.
Fleas have very long rear legs with
huge thigh muscles and multiple joints. When they get ready to jump. They fold their
long legs up and crouch like a runner on a staring block. Several of their
joints contain a protein called resilin, which helps catapult fleas into the
air as they jump, similar to the way a rubber band provides momentum to a
slingshot. Outward facing claws on the bottom of their legs grip anything they
touch when they land.
The adult female flea mates after
her first blood meal and begins producing eggs in just 1 to 2 days. One flea
can lay up to 50 eggs in one day and over 2,000 in her lifetime. Flea eggs can
be seen with the naked eye, but they are about the size of a grain of salt. Shortly
after being laid, the eggs begin to transform into cocoons. In the cocoon
state, fleas are fully developed adults, and will hatch immediately if
conditions are favorable. Fleas can detect warmth, movement, and carbon dioxide
in exhaled breath, and these three factors stimulate them to emerge as new
adults. If the flea does not detect appropriate conditions, it can remain
dormant in the cocoon state for extended periods. Under ideal conditions, the
entire life cycle may only take 3 weeks, so in no time at all, pets and homes
can become infested.
Because of these characteristics,
fleas are intimidating opponents. The best way to control fleas, therefore, is
to take steps to prevent an infestation from ever occurring.
Fleas are difficult to squish
because they have
I Sclerites
II Tough spines
III Resilin in their joints
Although cynics may like to see he government’s policy for
women in terms of the party’s internal power struggles, it will nevertheless be
churlish to deny that it represents a pioneering effect aimed at bringing about
sweeping social reforms. In its language, scope and strategies, the policy documents
displays a degree of understanding of women’s needs that is uncommon in
government pronouncements. This is due in large part to the participatory
process that marked its formulation, seeking the active involvement right from
the start of women’s groups, academic institutions and non-government
organizations with grass roots experience. The result is not just a lofty
declaration of principles but a blueprint for a practical program of action.
The policy delineates a series of concrete measures to accord women a
decision-making role in the political domain and greater control over their
economic status. Of especially far-reaching impart are the devolution of
control of economic infrastructure to women, notably at the gram panchayat
level, and the amendment proposed in the Act of 1956 to give women comparcenary
rights.
And enlightened aspect of the policy is its recognition that
actual change in the status of women cannot be brought about by the mere enactment
of socially progressive legislation. Accordingly, it focuses on reorienting
development programs and sensitizing administrations to address specific
situations as, for instance, the growing number of households headed by women,
which is a consequence of rural-urban migration. The proposal to create an
equal-opportunity police force and give women greater control of police
stations is an acknowledgement of the biases and callousness displayed by the
generally all-male law-enforcement authorities in case of dowery and domestic
violence. While the mere enunciation of such a policy has the salutary effect
of sensitizing the administration as a whole, it does not make the task of its
implementation any easier. This is because the changes it envisages in the
political and economic status of woman strike at the root of power structures
in society and the basis of man-woman relationship. There is also the danger
that reservation for women in public life, while necessary for their greater
visibility, could lapse into tokenism or become a tool in the hands of vote
seeking politicians. Much will depend on the dissemination of the policy and
the ability of elected representatives and government agencies to reorder their
priorities.
According to the passage which of the following is not true?