--- title: The microscopic world: viruses and vaccines — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «The microscopic world: viruses and vaccines», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A virus is far smaller than a bacterium, a tiny packet of instructions in a coat, often drawn like a ball with spikes; most ar --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/258-the-microscopic-world-viruses-and-vaccines/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / The microscopic world: viruses and vac… # The microscopic world: viruses and vaccines Lesson 258 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 17 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/258-the-microscopic-world-viruses-and-vaccines/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/258-the-microscopic-world-viruses-and-vaccines/0/) — A virus is far smaller than a bacterium, a tiny packet of instructions in a coat, often drawn like a ball with spikes; most are too small to see even with an ordinary school microscope. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/258-the-microscopic-world-viruses-and-vaccines/1/) — On its own a virus cannot grow, eat or copy itself, so scientists still argue whether it is alive; it has to get inside a living cell and trick the cell into building copies of the virus. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/258-the-microscopic-world-viruses-and-vaccines/2/) — When your friend sneezes and you catch his cold, viruses in tiny drops got into the cells of your nose, and soon those cells were busy making more viruses instead of doing their own job. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/258-the-microscopic-world-viruses-and-vaccines/4/) — In 1796 Edward Jenner made the first vaccine from cowpox, and with vaccines people later wiped smallpox off the whole Earth, which was declared done in 1980. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/258-the-microscopic-world-viruses-and-vaccines/5/) — Colds are caused by viruses spread by sneezes, coughs and touching hands and then faces, and there are over 200 kinds of cold virus, so you keep catching new ones. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/258-the-microscopic-world-viruses-and-vaccines/6/) — A virus gets into a cell and makes the cell build copies of the virus; it cannot copy itself on its own, so scientists argue whether viruses are alive. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/258-the-microscopic-world-viruses-and-vaccines/7/) — Most viruses are much smaller than bacteria and too small to be seen with an ordinary light microscope. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/258-the-microscopic-world-viruses-and-vaccines/8/) — A vaccine shows the immune system a harmless piece or weak form of a germ, so the body learns to recognise it and fights it fast next time; when almost everyone in a place is vaccinated, the germ finds very few people to jump to and struggles to spread. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/258-the-microscopic-world-viruses-and-vaccines/9/) — Edward Jenner made the first vaccine in 1796 from cowpox, and smallpox was declared wiped out worldwide in 1980. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/258-the-microscopic-world-viruses-and-vaccines/10/) — A fever is the body turning up the brain's thermostat to make it harder for germs to multiply; it is usually helpful, but a very high fever needs a doctor. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/258-the-microscopic-world-viruses-and-vaccines/12/) — Bacteriophages are viruses that attack bacteria; they look like tiny moon landers, inject their instructions and burst the bacterium, and doctors sometimes use them when antibiotics fail. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/258-the-microscopic-world-viruses-and-vaccines/13/) — The chickenpox virus can hide in nerves for decades and come back as shingles, often when the immune system weakens with age; there are vaccines for both. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/258-the-microscopic-world-viruses-and-vaccines/14/) — Bats live in big crowded colonies and carry many viruses without getting sick, thanks to very strong immune systems; viruses can sometimes jump from animals to people, but bats are very important for pollination and eating insects and should not be harmed. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/258-the-microscopic-world-viruses-and-vaccines/15/) — The famous stripes on «broken» tulips in old Dutch paintings were caused by a virus, and in the 1630s a single striped bulb could cost as much as a house. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/258-the-microscopic-world-viruses-and-vaccines/16/) — A computer virus is named after real viruses because it copies itself by getting into a host, a program instead of a cell. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/258-the-microscopic-world-viruses-and-vaccines/17/) — About 8 percent of human DNA is made of bits of old viruses that got into our ancestors long ago. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/258-the-microscopic-world-viruses-and-vaccines/18/) — Giant viruses such as the mimivirus, described in 2003, are bigger than some small bacteria, and some are even infected by their own little viruses. - ← previous: [The microscopic world: bacteria, good and bad](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/257-the-microscopic-world-bacteria-good-and-bad/) - next →: [The microscopic world: tardigrades, mites, plankton and other tiny creatures](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/259-the-microscopic-world-tardigrades-mites-plankton-and-other-tiny-creatures/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)