Many vaccines lose their effectiveness if they are allowed to warm, and some are damaged by freezing as well, which leaves a narrow band of temperature that must be maintained from the factory to the arm. The chain of refrigeration that does this is the expensive and fragile part of any immunisation campaign, far more so than the vaccine itself. A single failure at one point in the chain can spoil an entire consignment without any visible sign that anything is wrong. Programmes therefore carry temperature indicators alongside the doses, because a vial that has been spoiled looks exactly like one that has not.
As used in the passage, consignment most nearly means
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Correct answer to question 52 (Paragraph Comprehension): a shipment of goods
Method
The word describes what a single failure can spoil, and the passage is about doses travelling from factory to arm, so it means the batch being shipped. The similar-sounding assignment is the trap.
Updated: November 2026
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