Question

living together
symbiosis. one sym bio tic relationship
is parasitism. a parasite is an organism that
lives off its host animal and may cause
phys ical harm. bio logists
consider a mosquito to be a parasite
because it feeds off blood. mosquitoes may
also deliver parasites that live inside the
body. one example is the single - celled
plasmodium; this ogen causes the
human disease of malaria.

Explanation:

To solve the fill - in - the - blank for the word “____ogen” (where the options are path, techn, psych), we analyze the context:

Step 1: Analyze the meaning of the sentence

The sentence says that Plasmodium is a certain type of “ogen” that causes malaria (a human disease). We need to find the root word that is related to disease - causing agents.

Step 2: Analyze the root words

• The root “path” is related to disease (for example, “pathogen” means a disease - causing agent, “pathology” is the study of diseases).
• The root “techn” is related to technology (like “technical”, “technology”).
• The root “psych” is related to the mind (like “psychology”, “psychiatric”).

Since Plasmodium causes the disease malaria, the appropriate root word to fill in the blank is “path” to form “pathogen” (a disease - causing agent).

Answer:

path