READING

READING

READ AND COMPLETE THE SPACES WITH THE WORDS:

water - virus -dry -sanitizers -preventing -layers -alcohol - evaporate - investigate -surface

HOW DOES SOAP INACTIVATE CORONAVIRUSES?

Hi, I'm Julie from the Exploratorium. You've probably heard that washing your hands with…………. and water is the most effective way of …………….the spread of coronavirus. Now the question is, why is soap so helpful? And the answer is due to the biology and the structure of the ……………. itself. Now many viruses, including coronaviruses are surrounded by a membrane And this membrane is exactly the same as the one that surrounds our own cells. The membrane is made of molecules that have a really special property. They have one side that I've represented in blue here that likes water, it's a water-loving end, and then their other half of them dislikes water; it's a water-hating end. It likes fats a little bit more. Now these molecules assemble together so that they have actually two ………… of them. One side lines up so the water's facing on this end, and the other side lines up so the water's facing on that. And basically, a ribbon of these surrounds the virus. Now the trick to inactivating this virus is to disrupt the membrane. Soap molecules have very similar ……………. They have one side that likes water, and another side that's attracted to fat. That's why they're really helpful when you're washing your greasy dishes. If you can get a soap molecule into the virus membrane, it'll…………. the structure of the membrane and that inactivates the virus. The other thing that soap is handy for is it can help us ……………. the behavior of membranes. I have a tray of soapy water here, and a string that I've threaded through two straws.

If you want to try this at home, we have instructions and a recipe for it on our website. You can see that when I pull up the straws, that a film forms. This is a soap film. And this membrane has the same behavior as the membrane around the virus. If I touch it with my ……………hand, you’ll see that it pops. And in fact, when the coronavirus is on a ………………, all it needs to do is eventually dry out, and it will be inactivated. However, if I now wet my finger, you’ll see that my wet finger does not disrupt the membrane. You've probably heard that the virus travels in …………. droplets. It needs these droplets of water to keep its membranes intact. Another thing you've probably heard is that if you don't have soap and …………. available, hand ……………. that have 60% or more alcohol, are also effective in inactivating the virus. I have some 70% rubbing ……………. here, and this time I'm going to pull up my membrane, and I have my finger covered in the alcohol. And the moment I touch the membrane, it pops. And so alcohol is another way to inactivate the virus. Now alcohol tends to ……………., and maybe that happens before you've gotten it into all the crevices of your hands, so soap and water is really the best choice. So keep ……………. your hands, and celebrates our hero: the soap molecule.

  HOMEWORK
1.-ELABORATE A CONCEPTUAL MAP FROM THE READING.
2.- ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUETIONS WITH INFORMATION FROM THE READING:
 

a.- Why does soap is so effective when inactivating coronaviruses?