IV. Reading Comprehension: Select the best answer to each question. ( 1 )
Until a century ago, bloodletting was used to treat many ailments. Dating back to before the time of
Christ, the treatment involved letting a type of worm, called a leech, such blood from the patient.
People believed that there were liquids called humors in the body and that these determined a person’s
personality and health. Bloodletting, they thought, restored a balance to these humors.
At the time, little was known of the workings of the human body, but people did know that the
same liquid, blood, flowed throughout everyone’s body. They knew it was a vital substance, for loss of
any great amount of it meant certain death. Thus, they concluded that all diseases were carried in the
bloodstream, and that if the body was relieved of bad blood, health would return. Bloodletting, however,
came to be used as a cure-all. Women were bled to keep them from blushing, while members of the
clergy were bled to prevent them from thinking sinful and worldly thoughts.
From the eleventh to the eighteenth centuries, barbers were the people to go to if you needed to be
bled. This custom explains the significance of the traditional barber’s pole: the white stripes stand for
bandages and the red stripes for blood.
【題組】27. Why is bloodletting no longer considered a cure-all?
(A) Because more is known about the workings of the human body
(B) Because leeches were outlawed
(C) Because barbers were too busy cutting hair
(D) Because today we know that blood is necessary for health