This Leech Wants to Suck Your Blood

Editing: Level 1
The Lazy Editor
This Leech Wants to
Suck Your Blood
And your doctor just might let it! By Sarah McCarry
Directions: Read the following
article, which contains many terrible
mistakes. Then follow the prompts
Mmmmmmm.
Blooooooooooood.
in the box on the next page.
1
Losing a finger or a toe
are not fun. Also not
fun? The treatment some
doctors are using to
reattach fingers and toes,
bloodletting meant
which involve creepy
simply cutting open a vein.
bloodsucking little
Other times, leeches were placed
on the patient to slurp out blood. The
Leeches.
2
point was always the same: to make the
Leeches is a type of worm.
patient bleed. I saw bloodletting in a movie
Most species live in fresh water
once, and it was icky. In Europe, the practice of
and survives by eating the blood of animals. How? Like
bloodletting continued until the late 19th century, with
this: Using suckers on each end of its body, a leech
leeches being prescribed for everything from fevers
latches on to an animal or human; then it helps itself
and headaches to black eyes. I bet the higher your
to a long, delicious drink of warm blood. (A hungry
fever, the more leeches you got—ROLF!
leech can guzzle down six to eight times its own body
weight.) This may sound more like the stuff of
4
Thankfully, today’s doctors know that making
sick people bleed isn’t such a great idea. Doctors
nightmares than of hospitals, but leeches actually has a
have, however, discovered another way to use leeches.
long history of medical use.
And it totally grosses me out.
3
The ancient Greeks and Romans believed that
poor health was caused by an imbalance of fluids
5
When a leech is feeding, it releases a special
chemical that prevents blood from clotting. That
in the body. They liked to even things out through a
way, the blood can keep flowing into the leech and
frightening practice known as bloodletting. Sometimes
won’t harden inside its belly. The word clot, by the way,
Scholastic Scope • SEPTEMBER 2014
Antagain/E+/Getty Images (LEECH); Viktor Korotayev/Reuters/Corbis (FACE)
critters called leeches. Yes.
We love this story. Too bad we couldn’t be
bothered to edit it! Will you fix it for us?
by companies
that have special
permission to sell
it. These companies, which have to be approved by the
Food and Drug Administration, also make sure that the
leeches don’t carry diseases. So if at your local hospital
you happen to encounter a bloodthirsty worm, do try
your best not to squirm.
•
makes me want to vomit.
6
A leech’s ability to prevent blood from clotting is
what turns them into a healing superstar. For
example, let’s say you had the misfortune of losing a
finger (which would be a total bummer, of course).
After stitching your finger back on, a surgeon might use
a leech to speed along the healing process. As the leech
latches onto the injured area, their anti-clotting
chemical will help blood circulation, enabling new
veins to grow.
7
But before you head down to the nearest pond
to scoop up a supply of bloodsuckers for your
medicine cabinet, know this: It might look like its
wild cousins, but medical leeches are very different.
Medical leeches are raised in sterile environments
ILLUSTRATION BY dave CLEGG
Find It/Fix It
Don’t try
this at
home!
Directions: Can you find the following errors in the
article and fix them? Write the answers on your own paper.
Paragraphs 1 & 2: Something funny is happening with the verbs. Can you figure out what’s
wrong and fix the five mistakes?
Paragraphs 3, 4 & 5: TMI! Why is the writer sharing her personal thoughts and experiences?
Cross out four sentences that don’t belong.
Paragraphs 6 & 7: Pronoun disaster! Five of the pronouns
Get
For more practice,
MORE
in these paragraphs do not agree with the nouns to which
go to Scope Online.
Online!
it—oops, they—refer. Please help!
scope.scholastic.com • SEPTEMBER 2014