The Growing Global Threat Of Antibiotic Resistance Ielts Reading Answers Verified -

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."

Explanation: Paragraph D details the mechanisms by which bacteria resist antibiotics: altering cell walls, producing enzymes, mutating DNA, taking up DNA from other bacteria, and acquiring plasmids. This makes it the clear match for this heading. Many of us have come to take antibiotics for granted

Antibiotics function by targeting specific vulnerabilities in bacterial structures, such as cell wall synthesis or protein production. Evolution, however, equips bacteria with rapid adaptation mechanisms. When exposed to an antimicrobial agent, the most susceptible bacteria perish, leaving behind a resilient minority. These surviving organisms possess genetic mutations that render the drug ineffective. Most of the time the illness is viral,