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Men have walked on the moon, transplanted hearts and invented machines to think for them. But they cannot cure the common cold. A spokesman at the world-famous cold research center in Salisbury sounded. understandably bad- tempered when I spoke to him about it. They've been working on the problem for years but the most optimistic he could be was to hope that they would find a cure within the next 10 years. So what was their advice on coping with a cold meanwhile? «Ignore it», he said.

In urban areas we have about three colds a year and they are caused not by wet feet or sitting in a draught, but by a virus, or rather many viruses which are always changing so that a vaccine prepared from one is useless against the next. But every year the pharmaceutical companies spend millions of pounds trying to persuade us that their product will banish¹ the miseries of sneezing, running noses, sore throats, headaches and coughs. They admit they can't cure the cold, but they do promise to relieve² the symptoms.

We looked at 10 well-known brands of cold remedies and asked a doctor to explain, exactly what they contain, each ingredient is for, and his opinion on their effectiveness. Although none of the preparations had exactly the same ingredients, they fell into certain categories.

Nearly all contained a painkiller, either aspirin or paracetamol. These help to reduce temperature and relieve general aches and pains. Aspirin can irritate the stomach, so paracetamol is generally preferred.

None of the preparations was harmful, as long as you observed the warnings on the packets. The worst thing about them was the cost. Advertising and packaging had inflated the price of relatively cheap ingredients, and in many cases you could get the same relief from straightforward paracetamol taken with a warm drink of lemon and honey.

¹ to banish —отгонять

² to relieve —облегчать

Test № 24

I. Определите, верны (True) или неверны (False) слс дующие утверждения.

1. The cold research centre in Salisbury is known all over the world.

2. The pharmaceutical companies spend millions of money on developin a cure for the common cold.

3. Cold cures fell into certain categories though they actually contai the same ingredients.

4. The worst thing about the preparations, according to the author, i that they can be harmful.