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  3. Microbiologist: A lethal strain of salmonella recently showed up in a European country, causing an outbreak of illness that kill

Microbiologist: A lethal strain of salmonella recently showed up in a European country, causing an outbreak of illness that kill

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问题 Microbiologist: A lethal strain of salmonella recently showed up in a European country, causing an outbreak of illness that killed two people and infected twenty-seven others. Investigators blame the severity of the outbreak on the overuse of antibiotics, since the salmonella bacteria tested were shown to be drug-resistant. But this is unlikely because patients in the country where the outbreak occurred cannot obtain antibiotics to treat illness without a prescription, and the country’s doctors prescribe antibiotics less readily than do doctors in any other European country.
Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the microbiologist’s reasoning?
选项 A、Physicians in the country where the outbreak occurred have become hesitant to prescribe antibiotics since they are frequently in short supply.
B、People in the country where the outbreak occurred often consume foods produced from animals that eat antibiotics-laden livestock feed.
C、Use of antibiotics in two countries that neighbor the country where the outbreak occurred has risen over the past decade.
D、Drug-resistant strains of salmonella have not been found in countries in which antibiotics are not generally available.
E、Salmonella has been shown to spread easily along the distribution chains of certain vegetables, such as raw tomatoes.
答案B
解析 Argument Evaluation
Situation Antibiotic-resistant salmonella caused an outbreak of illness in a European country where patients need prescriptions to obtain antibiotics and where doctors dispense such prescriptions less readily than in other European countries.
Reasoning What evidence would most strongly suggest that overuse of antibiotics was likely responsible for the outbreak, despite the cited facts? The microbiologist reasons that because patients need prescriptions to obtain antibiotics in the country where the outbreak occurred, and the country’s doctors dispense such prescriptions less readily than doctors in other European countries do, antibiotics are probably not being overused in the country—so antibiotic overuse was probably not responsible for the outbreak. Implicit in the microbiologist s reasoning is the assumption that overuse of antibiotics, if it had occurred, could probably have resulted only from overprescribing of antibiotics by physicians to treat illness in people in the country in question. Any evidence casting doubt on this complex assumption would suggest a weakness in the microbiologist’s reasoning.
A This strengthens the argument by providing additional evidence that antibiotics are not being overprescribed in the country.
B Correct. This weakens the microbiologist’s argument by indicating that an assumption implicit in the argument may be false: the salmonella outbreak could easily by explained by overuse of antibiotics in livestock feed (perhaps imported from other countries).
C Even if antibiotic use has risen in the two neighboring countries, antibiotics still might be underused in both countries.
D This suggests that antibiotic-resistant salmonella arises only in countries where antibiotics are used; even if this were true it would be quite compatible with the microbiologist’s argument and does not weaken that argument.
E This describes one mechanism by which salmonella can spread in a population; it says nothing about whether an outbreak of antibiotic-resistant strains of salmonella might have been caused by antibiotic overuse.
The correct answer is B.
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