Supplemental Materials
Table A
Six High-Interest Statements and Six Low-Interest Statements About Viruses--Experiment 1
High-Interest Statements
A study conducted by researchers at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, reveals that people who make love once or twice a week are more immune to colds than folks who abstain from sex. Researchers believe that bedroom activity somehow stimulates an immune-boosting antibody called IgA.
Results of a recent, nationally representative study show that genital herpes infection is common in the United States. Nationwide, 45 million people ages12 and older, or 1 out of 5 of the total adolescent and adult population, are infected with the herpes virus.
The onset of the disease caused by the Ebola virus is rapid: symptoms can occur within 2 to 21 days after infection. Once symptoms begin to show, death can occur within days or after about a week at most.
According to scientists in Spain, drinking wine, especially red, stops people from developing colds. Something in wine seems to have a protective effect because the same was not seen with beer and spirits. This evidence comes a year long study with 4.000 volunteers, which found that people who drank more than 2 glasses of red wine a day had 44% fewer colds than others.
It has not been shown that taking large quantities of vitamin C prevents colds. In fact, too much vitamin C can cause severe diarrhea.
The HIV virus is different in every infected person. Some people die soon after getting infected, while others like fairly normal loves for many years, even after they "officially" have AIDS. A few HOV-positive people stay healthy for many years even without taking anti-HIV medications.
Low-Interest Statements
A virus is about 10 times smaller than a bacterium, which is approximately 10 times smaller than a typical human cell. Atypical human cell is 10 times smaller than a human hair. Therefore, it can be concluded that a virus is about 1000 times smaller than a human hair.
Foot and mouth disease virus can be spread through direct contact between animals within a herd, through virus-containing aerosols traveling with the prevailing winds, or on the soles of shoes or the tires of vehicles.
Antibiotics do not kill viruses. These prescription drugs should be used only for rare bacterial complications, such as sinusitis or ear infections, that can develop as secondary infections. The use of antibiotics "just in case" will not prevent secondary bacterial infections.
The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) estimates that, in 1996, 62 million cases of the common cold in the U.S. required medical attention or resulted in restricted activity. Colds caused 45 million days of restricted activity and 22 million days lost from school.
Antibiotics are ineffective against viruses because the chemical compounds that inhibit the multiplication of viruses generally also slow the functions of and are toxic to the lives of patients with AIDS.
More than 200 viruses are known to cause symptoms of the common cold. Some seldom produce serious illnesses. Others, however, produce mild infections in adults, but can precipitate severe lower respiratory infections in young children.
Table B
Seven High-Interest Statements and Seven Low-Interest Statements About Digestion--Experiment 2
High-Interest Statements
A woman was cleaning her home when a winged cockroach hopped into her mouth.
She tried to scoop the insect out with a fork but ended up swallowing both the fork and the cockroach. Through surgery, a doctor removed the fork but not the cockroach. It had already been digested.
It is not true that swimming immediately after eating causes cramps. In fact, long distance swimmers actually eat while in the water to avoid fatigue and muscle cramps.
A pill-sized video camera first used in Chicago three years ago is becoming a common diagnostic tool for digestive problems at hospitals around the country. Patients swallow it, giving doctors an inside look at the digestive tract.
The majority of sword swallowers employ a guiding tube, which they have previously ingested and hence their performances are less dangerous.
Sword swallowing originated thousands of years ago in India by shaman priests who developed it, along with fire walking on hot coal and handling poisonous snakes as demonstrations of their connection with their gods.
One phenomenon shown by many branchiopods is anal swallowing. Water is taken in through the anus and is thought to act like an enema in clearing unwanted material from the hindgut.
A camera-in-a-capsule, developed by Israel’s Given Imaging Ltd., takes roughly eight hours to pass through the body, transmitting a stream of video images to a data recorder the patient wears on a belt.
Low-Interest Statements
Hundreds of different kinds of enzymes are needed to properly digest food.
Chewing food takes from 5-30 seconds, and swallowing takes about 10 seconds.
The esophagus is approximately 25m long.
People normally swallow hundreds of times a day to eat, drink liquids, and swallow the normal saliva and mucus the body produces.
In the mouth, food is either cooled or warmed to a more suitable temperature.
The tongues of certain reptiles function primarily as sensory organs, whereas cats and some other mammals use their tongues as instruments for grooming and cleaning.
In frogs, the tongue is elongated and adapted to capturing insect prey.