The rise of antibiotic resistant infections reading answers

We have given the IELTS reading practice test along with the rise of antibiotic resistant infections reading answers. The given passage has 13 questions in 2 different question types. 
  
Table of contents:

• Solution for the rise of antibiotic resistant infections
• The rise of antibiotic resistant infections IELTS reading practice test
• Passage
• Questions
• Answers with explanations

Solution for the rise of antibiotic resistant infections

Below we have given the answers for the rise of antibiotic resistant infections reading answers,  in table format.

Answer Table

1. LM	5. JC	9. C	13. B
2. PK	6. BM	10. F
3. MB	7. LM	11. A
4. MB	8. D	12. E

The rise of antibiotic resistant infections IELTS reading practice test - Exam Review

Check out our YouTube Channel to Practice Full-Length IELTS Reading Tests Daily

The given passage is for the IELTS reading practice test to challenge your reading skill. The given passage is about the topic of the rise of antibiotic resistant infections IELTS reading answers, go through the passage thoroughly to collect major points and highlight it, use it while answering.

Passage

We have given the rise of antibiotic resistant infections for the IELTS reading practice test, with the complete passage to answer the questions correctly.

A. When penicillin became widely available during the Second World War, it was a medical miracle, rapidly vanquishing the biggest wartime killer – infected wounds. Discovered initially by a French medical student, Ermest Duchesne, in 1896, and then rediscovered by Scottish physician Alexander Fleming in 1928, Penicillium crippled many types of disease-causing bacteria. But just four years after drug companies began mass-producing penicillin in 1943, microbes began appearing that could resist it.

B. “There was complacency in the 1980s. The perception was that we had licked the bacterial infection problem. Drug companies weren’t working on new agents. They were concentrating on other areas, such as viral infections,” says Michael Blum, M.D, medical officer in the Food and Drug Administration’s division of anti-infective drug products. “In the meantime, resistance increased to a number of commonly used antibiotics, possibly related to overuse. In the 1990s, we’ve come to a point for certain infections that we don’t have agents available.”

C. The increased prevalence of antibiotic resistance is an outcome of evolution. Any population of organisms, bacteria included, naturally includes variants with unusual traits – in this case, the ability to withstand an antibiotic’s attack on a microbe. When a person takes an antibiotic, the drug kills the defenseless bacteria, leaving behind – or “selecting,” in biological terms – those that can resist it. These renegade bacteria then multiply, increasing their numbers a million fold in a day, becoming the predominant microorganism. “Whenever antibiotics are used, there is selective pressure for resistance to occur. More and more organisms develop resistance to more and more drugs,” says Joe Cranston, Ph.D, director of the department of drug policy and standards at the American Medical Association in Chicago.

D. Disease-causing microbes thwart antibiotics by interfering with their mechanism of action. For example, penicillin kills bacteria by attaching to their cell walls, then destroying a key part of the wall. The wall falls apart, and the bacterium dies. Resistant microbes, however, either alter their cell walls so penicillin can’t bind or produce enzymes that dismantle the antibiotic. Antibiotic resistance results from gene action. Bacteria acquire genes conferring resistance in different ways. Bacterial DNA may mutate spontaneously. Drug-resistant tuberculosis arises this way. Another way is called transformation where one bacterium may take up DNA from another bacterium. Most frightening,however, is resistance acquired from a small circle of DNA called a plasmid, which can fit from one type of bacterium to another. A single plasmid can provide a slew of different resistances.

E. Many of us have come to take antibiotics for granted. A child develops a sore throat or an ear infection, and soon a bottle of pink medicine makes everything better. Linda McCaig, a scientist at the CDC, comments that “many consumers have an expectation that when they’re ill antibiotics are the answer. Most of the time the illness is viral, and antibiotics are not the answer. This large burden of antibiotics is certainly selecting resistant bacteria.” McCaig and Peter Killeen, a fellow scientist at the CDC, tracked antibiotic use in treating common illnesses. The report cites nearly 6 million antibiotic prescriptions for sinusitis alone in 1985, and nearly 13 million in 1992. Ironically, advances in modern medicine have made more people predisposed to infection. McCaig notes that “there are a number of immunocompromised patients who wouldn’t have survived in earlier times. Radical procedures produce patients who are in difficult shape in the hospital, and there is routine use of antibiotics to prevent infection in these patients.”

F. There are measures we can take to slow the inevitable resistance. Barbara Murray, M.D, of the University of Texas Medical School at Houston writes that “simple improvements in public health measures can go a long way towards preventing infection”. Such approaches include more frequent hand washing by health-care workers, quick identification and isolation of patients with drug-resistant infections, and improving sewage systems and water purity.

Drug manufacturers are also once again becoming interested in developing new antibiotics. The FDA is doing all it can to speed development and availability of new antibiotic drugs. “We can’t identify new agents – that’s the job of the pharmaceutical industry. But once they have identified a promising new drug, what we can do is to meet with the company very early and help design the development plan and clinical trials,” says Blum. In addition, drugs in development can be used for patients with multidrug-resistant infections on an emergency compassionate use basis for people with AIDS or cancer, for example.” Blum adds. Appropriate prescribing is important. This means that physicians use narrow spectrum antibiotics – those that target only a few bacterial types – whenever possible, so that resistances can be restricted. “There has been a shift to using costlier, broader spectrum agents. This prescribing trend heightens the resistance problem because more diverse bacteria are being exposed to antibiotics,” writes Killeen. So, while awaiting the next wonder drug, we must appreciate, and use correctly, the ones that we already have.

Another problem with antibiotic use is that patients often stop taking the drug too soon, because symptoms improve. However, this merely encourages resistant microbes to proliferate. The infection returns a few weeks later, and this time a different drug must be used to treat it. The conclusion: resistance can be slowed if patients take medications correctly.

Questions

Questions 1-7

• Match the views (1-7) with the people listed below.
• Write the appropriate letters in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet. 

PK Peter Killeen JC Joe Cranston LM Linda McCaig MB Michael Blum BM Barbara Murray

1 Antibiotics are sometimes used to only prevent infections.
2 Choosing the correct antibiotic for particular infections is important.
3 Today there are some bacterial infections for which we have no effective antibiotic.
4 Untested drugs can be used on terminal patients as a last resort.
5 Resistance develops every time an antibiotic is used.
6 Merely washing hands can have a positive effect.
7 Antibiotics are often impotently used against viruses.

Questions 8-13

• The reading passage has 6 paragraphs (A-F)
• Which paragraphs concentrate on the following information?
• Write the appropriate letters (A-F) in boxes 8-13 on your answer sheet.

8 How antibiotic resistance happens.
9 The survival of the fittest bacteria.
10 Factors to consider in solving the antibiotic-resistant bacteria problem.
11 The impact of the discovery of the first antibiotic.
12 The misuse and overuse of antibiotics.
13 The cessation of research into combating bacterial infections.

Answers for the rise of antibiotic resistant infections with explanation

Below we include the rise of antibiotic resistant infections reading answers with explanations. Use it to assess your mistakes while answering. 

(Note: The text in italics mentions the location and referring lines written in the reading passage)

1. Answer:LM

Explanation: McCaig notes that “there are a number of immunocompromised patients who wouldn’t have survived in earlier times. Radical procedures produce patients who are in difficult shape in the hospital, and there is routine use of antibiotics to prevent infection in these patients.” The given answer is located in the last 3 lines of paragraph E.

2. Answer: PK

Explanation: Appropriate prescribing is important. This means that physicians use narrow spectrum antibiotics – those that target only a few bacterial types – whenever possible, so that resistances can be restricted. “There has been a shift to using costlier, broader spectrum agents. This prescribing trend heightens the resistance problem because more diverse bacteria are being exposed to antibiotics,” writes Killeen. The given answer is located in the 9-14 lines of 2nd stanza of paragraph F.

3. Answer: MB

Explanation: Michael Blum, M.D, medical officer in the Food and Drug Administration’s division of anti-infective drug products. “In the meantime, resistance increased to a number of commonly used antibiotics, possibly related to overuse. In the 1990s, we’ve come to a point for certain infections that we don’t have agents available." The given answer is located in the last 4 lines of paragraph B.

4. Answer: MB 

Explanation: In addition, drugs in development can be used for patients with multidrug-resistant infections on an emergency compassionate use basis for people with AIDS or cancer, for example.” Blum adds.  The given answer is located in the 6-8 lines of the 2nd stanza  paragraph F.

5. Answer: JC

Explanation:  “Whenever antibiotics are used, there is selective pressure for resistance to occur. More and more organisms develop resistance to more and more drugs,” says Joe Cranston. The given answer is located in the 7-9 lines of paragraph c.

6. Answer: BM

Explanation: Barbara Murray, M.D, of the University of Texas Medical School at Houston writes that “simple improvements in public health measures can go a long way towards preventing infection”. Such approaches include more frequent hand washing by health-care workers, quick identification and isolation of patients with drug-resistant infections, and improving sewage systems and water purity. The given answer is located in the first stanza of paragraph F. 

7. Answer: LM

Explanation:  Linda McCaig, a scientist at the CDC, comments that “many consumers have an expectation that when they’re ill antibiotics are the answer. The given answer is located in the 2-4 lines of paragraph E. 

8. Answer: D

Explanation:  Antibiotic resistance results from gene action. Bacteria acquire genes conferring resistance in different ways. Bacterial DNA may mutate spontaneously. Drug-resistant tuberculosis arises this way. Another way is called transformation where one bacterium may take up DNA from another bacterium. The given answer is located in the 5-8 lines of paragraph D.

9. Answer: C

Explanation:  When a person takes an antibiotic, the drug kills the defenseless bacteria, leaving behind – or “selecting,” in biological terms – those that can resist it. These renegade bacteria then multiply, increasing their numbers a million fold in a day, becoming the predominant microorganism. The given answer is located in the 3-7 lines of paragraph C

10. Answer:  F

Explanation:  “simple improvements in public health measures can go a long way towards preventing infection”. Such approaches include more frequent hand washing by health-care workers, quick identification and isolation of patients with drug-resistant infections, and improving sewage systems and water purity. The given answer is located in the last 4 lines of the 1st stanza of paragraph F.

11. Answer: A

Explanation: When penicillin became widely available during the Second World War, it was a medical miracle, rapidly vanquishing the biggest wartime killer – infected wounds. The given answer is located in the first 2 lines of paragraph A.

12. Answer: E

Explanation: Many of us have come to take antibiotics for granted. A child develops a sore throat or an ear infection, and soon a bottle of pink medicine makes everything better. The given answer is located in the first 2 lines of paragraph E.  

 13. Answer: B

Explanation: “There was complacency in the 1980s. The perception was that we had licked the bacterial infection problem. Drug companies weren’t working on new agents. The given answer is located in the first 2 lines of paragraph B. 

Other reading tests

• Music language we all speak reading answers
• The eisriesenwelt ice caves reading answers