HESI A2 READING,VOCABULARY & COMPREHENSION 2026 | 2026

HESI A2 READING,VOCABULARY & COMPREHENSION 2021 Questions 1 – 4 refer to the following passage. Passage 1 - Infectious Disease An infectious disease is a clinically evident illness resulting from the presence of pathogenic agents, such as viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, multi-cellular parasites, and unusual proteins known as prions. Infectious pathologies are also called communicable diseases or transmissible diseases, due to their potential of transmission from one person or species to another by a replicating agent (as opposed to a toxin). Transmission of an infectious disease can occur in many different ways. Physical contact, liquids, food, body fluids, contaminated objects, and airborne inhalation can all transmit infecting agents. Transmissible diseases that occur through contact with an ill person, or objects touched by them, are especially infective, and are sometimes referred to as contagious diseases. Communicable diseases that require a more specialized route of infection, such as through blood or needle transmission, or sexual transmission, are usually not regarded as contagious. The term infectivity describes the ability of an organism to enter, survive and multiply in the host, while the infectiousness of a disease indicates the comparative ease with which the disease is transmitted. An infection however, is not synonymous with an infectious disease, as an infection may not cause important clinical symptoms. 1 1. What can we infer from the first paragraph in this passage? a. Sickness from a toxin can be easily transmitted from one person to another. b. Sickness from an infectious disease can be easily transmitted from one person to another. c. Few sicknesses are transmitted from one person to another. d. Infectious diseases are easily treated. 2. What are two other names for infections’ pathologies? a. Communicable diseases or transmissible diseases b. Communicable diseases or terminal diseases c. Transmissible diseases or preventable diseases d. Communicative diseases or unstable diseases 3. What does infectivity describe? a. The inability of an organism to multiply in the host b. The inability of an organism to reproduce c. The ability of an organism to enter, survive and multiply in the host d. The ability of an organism to reproduce in the host 4. How do we know an infection is not synonymous with an infectious disease? a. Because an infectious disease destroys infections with enough time. b. Because an infection may not cause important clinical symptoms or impair host function. c. We do not. The two are synonymous. d. Because an infection is too fatal to be an infectious disease.