50. What Caused Cold?

The common cold is the world’s most widespread illness, which is plagues that flesh receives.

The most widespread fallacy(谬误) of all is that colds caused by cold. They are caused by 1) _____ passingon from person to person. You catch a cold by coming into contact, directly or indirectly, with someone who already has one. If cold causes colds, it would be reasonable to expect the Eskimos to suffer from them forever. But they do not. And in isolated arctic regions explorers have reported being free from colds until coming into contact again with 2) ____ people from the outside world by way of 3) ____ and mail dropped from airplanes.

During the First World War, soldiers who spent long periods in the trenches(战壕), cold and wet, showed no increased tendency to catch colds.

In the Second World War, prisoners at the notorious Auschwitz 4) ____ camp, 5) ____ and starving, were astonished to find that they seldom had colds.

At the Common Cold Research Unit in England, volunteers took part in experiments in which they gave themselves to the 6) ___ of being cold and wet for long 7) _____ of time. After taking hot baths, they put on bathing suits, allowed themselves to be with cold water, and then stood about dripping wet in drafty room. Some wore wet socks all day . 8) ____Not one of the volunteers came down with a cold unless a cold virus was actually dropped in his nose.

If, then, 9) ____? Despite the most pains--taking research, no one has yet found the answer. One explanation offered by scientists is that people tend to stay together indoors more in cold weather than at other times, and this makes it easier for cold viruses to be passed on.

No one has yet found a cure for the cold. 10) ____.