PrepTest 154, Section 3, Question 17
For nearly a century after the discovery in(452 more words not shown)
The passage suggests that if(28 more words not shown)
- AHuman antibodies that(16 more words not shown)
- BThe human body's(17 more words not shown)
- CIn their dormant(12 more words not shown)
- DThe infected humans(12 more words not shown)
- EThe human body(11 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
Follow the proposed situation through. Traditional cultures don't detect these bacteria, which fits the dormant state: alive but not reproducing. A person then ingests them and develops cholera. The question asks what that would suggest about the human body as an environment.
What we’re looking for
The useful connection is reactivation. The bacteria may be dormant before ingestion but become active in the body. We don't need to invent a specific temperature, immune response, or prior medical history to make that connection.
Working the answers
- A
The antibodies discussed earlier are part of Colwell's detection technique. We aren't given an account of human antibodies failing to attach to the bacteria. Similar vocabulary doesn't supply that missing biological claim.
- B
Even if bacteria can awaken in a human body, that doesn't establish the exact temperature seawater must reach. Several environmental conditions could matter, and the precise awakening conditions remain unknown.
- C
The account mentions unchlorinated water supplies. It doesn't establish that dormant bacteria can survive chlorination. We cannot remove that qualification and treat the two kinds of water as interchangeable.
- D
Nothing makes a previous infection necessary. The proposed scenario concerns ingesting bacteria now; it doesn't give us a reason the person must already have had cholera earlier in life.
- ECorrect
The human body could provide conditions in which dormant bacteria awaken. That explains how organisms missed by growth-based testing could nevertheless cause illness after ingestion. It connects the dormant state with renewed activity without pretending we know the precise trigger.
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