IELTS Academic Reading Sample 171 sẽ giúp các bạn biết được cách thức làm bài thi cũng như củng cố kiến thức của mình, chuẩn bị tốt cho kì thi sắp tới. Mời các bạn tham khảo. | You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1 14 which are based on Reading Passage 171 below. DIABETES Here are some facts that you probably didn t know about diabetes. It is the world s fastest growing disease. It is Australia s 6th leading cause of death. Over 1 million Australians have it though 50 of those are as yet unaware. Every 10 minutes someone is diagnosed with diabetes. So much for the facts but what exactly is diabetes Diabetes is the name given to a group of different conditions in which there is too much glucose in the blood. Here s what happens the body needs glucose as its main source of fuel or energy. The body makes glucose from foods containing carbohydrate such as vegetables containing carbohydrate like potatoes or corn and cereal foods like bread pasta and rice as well as fruit and milk. Glucose is carried around the body in the blood and the glucose level is called glycaemia. Glycaemia blood sugar levels in humans and animals must be neither too high nor too low but just right. The glucose running around in the blood stream now has to get out of the blood and into the body tissues. This is where insulin enters the story. Insulin is a hormone made by the pancreas a gland sitting just below the stomach. Insulin opens the doors that let glucose go from the blood to the body cells where energy is made. This process is called glucose metabolism. In diabetes the pancreas either cannot make insulin or the insulin it does make is not enough and cannot work properly. Without insulin doing its job the glucose channels are shut. Glucose builds up in the blood leading to high blood glucose levels which causes the health problems linked to diabetes. People refer to the disease as diabetes but there are actually two distinctive types of the disease. Type 1 diabetes is a condition characterized by high blood glucose levels caused by a total lack of insulin. It occurs when the body s immune system attacks the insulin- producing beta cells in the .
