The arehaeologist Howard Carter died in Egypt only five months after uncovering the tomb of King Tutankhamen in the Upper Valley of the Nile. Twenty-five others involved in the project also died within a year of the excavation of the tomb. Newspapers al the time (i) _____ the deaths to the Mummy’s Curse after a journalist (ii) _____ to have found a hieroglyphic inscription at the entrance of the tomb.
The writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, also advanced the story, insisting that a “pharaoh’s curse” was (iii) _____ for the deaths. Doctors have long speculated that they fell victim to some sort of bacteria, but now Dr. Nicola Di Paolo, a kidney disease expert and amateur arehaeologist has obtained the first clinical proof the (iv) _____ growth of a highly toxic microscopic Fungus. “In tombs which have been closed for centuries, air and damp may penetrate minute cracks in the walls, permitting the growth of poisonous moulds”, Di Paulo said recently. He speculated that an explorer who entered a tomb that had been closed for centuries without using a mask must have inhaled dust full of toxins from the mould. Similarly, he said, researehers handling the mummy and other objects found in Tutankhamen’s tomb could have breathed in the toxic mould. While small quantities are thought to be harmless, Di Paolo said (v) _____ exposure could be fatal, causing severe degeneration of the kidneys and liver.
(v)_____-
