What is the main idea of the passage?

Charles Drew advanced blood-plasma methods and helped organize reliable collection systems while opposing scientifically baseless segregation. (The passage joins research, system organization, wartime programs, and his opposition to segregation.)

Why are labels and records important in a blood bank?

They help staff track and handle collected material accurately through several stages. (The second paragraph presents labeling and record checks as parts of a reliable coordinated process.)

What does “plasma” mean in the first paragraph?

the liquid portion of blood (The first paragraph directly identifies plasma as blood's liquid portion.)

What policy did Drew challenge?

racial segregation in blood donation (The final paragraph states that Drew opposed racial separation policies lacking scientific basis.)

Charles Drew Builds a Blood Bank: Level 2 Reading Comprehension Questions

Physician and researcher Charles Drew studied how blood could be collected, processed, and stored for transfusion. Whole blood has a limited storage life. Plasma, its liquid portion, can be separated and handled differently. That distinction mattered when hospitals needed usable donated material for patients across long distances and under urgent conditions.

Drew researched factors that affected plasma quality and helped organize large collection programs. Reliable work required more than a scientific idea. Donors had to be screened, containers labeled, records checked, material processed, and shipments kept under suitable conditions.

During the Second World War, he helped direct programs that sent plasma for medical use. He also challenged racial segregation in blood-donation policies, which lacked a scientific basis. Drew's work showed that a blood bank is both laboratory practice and a coordinated public system built on careful standards and public trust.

Comprehension questions