home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- NEW SET
- A
- The blood of the horseshoe crab was found, in the 1960s, to be
- highly valuable because it reacts with, and so can be used to detect,
- bacterial endotoxin, a dangerous poison produced by some infectious
- bacteria that can bring on fever, pain, inflammation, shock - and
- sometimes death.
- A substance in this blood also reacts with the red and white cells
- in the human blood, particularly the cancerous white cells of some
- leukemia patients. One day it may be used for diagnosing this illness.
-
- next
- 1
- 1. The blood of the horseshoe crab is valuable to:
-
- A. drug manufacturers
- B. chemists
- C. leukemia patients
- next
- A
- 0
- B
- Correct.
-
- next
- wrong answer explanation
- B
- (A) Drug manufacturers may use this blood to make life-saving drug products.
-
- NEXT
- NEW SET
- B
- In their forays into the surf, the collectors capture horseshoe
- crabs measuring almost a foot across the thick frontal helmet, through
- which the animal peers out at its world with seven eyes, set in four
- concealed peekholes. Mature crabs crawl ashore on summer high tides to
- deposit their eggs in the sand. They spend most of their lives in the
- nearby shallows, going deeper in winter. Oddly, all four horseshoe crab
- species inhabit only the eastern edges of the continental land masses
- of North America and Asia.
-
- next
- 1
- 1. Horseshoe crabs are not found in the waters off:
-
- A. Maine
- B. Japan
- C. Yucatan
- D. Chile
- E. China
- next
- D
- 0
- C
- Correct.
-
- next
- wrong answer explanation
- C
- (D) They are not found along North America's western coastline, which
- includes Chile.
-
- NEXT
- NEW SET
- C
- The horseshoe crab is not a crab at all, but belongs to the spider
- class, Arachnida. It appears to be most closely related to scorpions -
- though its tail is stingless - and to ancient trilobites, whose form
- it recapitulates in the larval stage.
- Horseshoe crabs originated some 400 million years ago. "It's an
- animal that's been made to stay around," says Dr. Cohen, an immunologist
- who has been a leader in biomedical research involving the animal and in
- efforts to protect this unusual creature.
-
- next
- 1
- 1. The horseshoe crab is:
- A. a mammal
- B. a spider
- C. one of the last prehistoric animals
- D. a trilobite
- next
- C
- 0
- D
- Correct.
-
- next
- wrong answer explanation
- D
- (C) It is one of few surviving prehistoric animals.
-
- NEXT
- NEW SET
- D
- To obtain the blood, commercial collectors place the animal on a
- rack, push a hypodermic needle into the horseshoe crab's heart, attach
- a tube, then collect the blood that drains slowly out by gravity in a
- sterile container. The blood has a striking royal blue hue because
- its oxygen-carrying molecule, hemocyanin, contains copper instead of
- iron (which gives red blood its color). Depending on the animal's size,
- it will give up one to seven ounces of blood in this way.
-
- next
- 1
- 1. Hemocyanin:
- A. is blue
- B. contains blood
- C. contains iron
- D. is an oxygen-carrying molecule
- E. is found only in the heart of a horseshoe crab
- next
- D
- 0
- E
- Correct.
-
- next
- wrong answer explanation
- E
- (D) Hemocyanin molecules carry oxygen.
-
- NEXT
- NEW SET
- E
- "They don't seem to react too badly," says Dr. Rudloe. "When we
- take them out of the racks, they move about fairly vigorously."
- FDA, she says, requires that bled crabs be returned to salt water
- within 72 hours and, as far as anyone knows, most survive their blood
- loss. But no one knows for sure, and Rudloe's study is the first attempt
- to assess their recovery - or lack of it - in a scientific way.
-
- next
- 1
- 1. After being bled, horseshoe crabs:
-
- A. live for 72 hours
- B. move about vigorously, then die
- C. are protected by the FDA
- D. must be returned to the ocean if they are to survive
- next
- D
- 0
- F
- Correct.
-
- next
- wrong answer explanation
- F
- (D) They are returned to the ocean.
-
- NEXT
- NEW SET
- F
- Industrially polluted water appears to kill horseshoe crabs. But
- the very traits that make the animal medically valuable also protect
- it against most pollutants, and it continues to thrive in sewage-laden
- harbors of both the United States and Japan. In fact, the species'
- internal system of defense against invading bacteria is impressive.
-
- next
- 1
- 1. Pollutants of any kind kill horseshoe crabs.
-
- A. True
- B. False
- next
- B
- 0
- G
- Correct.
-
- next
- wrong answer explanation
- G
- (B) Horseshoe crabs can survive in polluted waters.
-
- NEXT
- NEW SET
- G
- Horseshoe crabs lack an immune system, the multi-targeting defense
- method that allows modern animals to produce antibodies directed at
- specific bacterial species and many - perhaps millions - of other
- menacing alien molecules. By contrast, the horseshoe crab's primitive
- but extremely potent defense system seeks out a handful of key biochemical
- molecules that are constituents of most bacteria that may infect them.
- This remarkable self-protective method has captivated biomedical
- scientists.
-
- next
- 1
- 1. The horseshoe crab is studied because of its defense system.
-
- A. True
- B. False
- next
- A
- 0
- H
- Correct.
-
- next
- wrong answer explanation
- H
- (A) Biomedical scientists study its defense system.
-
- END