Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the best answer to each of the following questions from 1 to 3.

A friend jumps out at you when you’re turning a corner. Your heart starts pounding and you gasp. “You scared me to death!” But is it really possible for you to die from being too scared?

Surprisingly, the answer is yes. In fact, any strong emotional reaction can trigger the production of fatal amounts of certain hormones in the body, and even though these cases are very rare, they can still happen to anyone. The risk of death from fear or another strong emotion is greater for individuals with pre-existing heart conditions, but people who are perfectly healthy can also fall victim.

How exactly does our body’s chemical response result in death, though? To understand this, we have to understand the fact that when the nervous system is stimulated, it releases a great deal of adrenaline or another similar chemical messenger, preparing the body for action. The problem is that adrenaline and similar chemicals in large doses are toxic to the heart, which can trigger what could cause sudden death upon being affected.

Adrenaline opens calcium to the heart. With a lot of calcium going to the heart, the organ has trouble slowing down, which is something that can cause ventricular fibrillation, a specific type of abnormal heart rhythm. Irregular heartbeat prevents the organ from successfully pumping blood to the body and can lead to sudden death unless treated immediately.