PrepTest 154, Section 3, Question 20
For nearly a century after the discovery in(452 more words not shown)
The passage suggests that Colwell(13 more words not shown)
- AIn most cases,(18 more words not shown)
- BIn most cases,(18 more words not shown)
- CCholera outbreaks are(22 more words not shown)
- DUse of Colwell's(22 more words not shown)
- EWater samples from(19 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
Start with Colwell's actual position. She reported finding bacteria in Chesapeake Bay and suspected that bacteria could remain in seawater even when traditional cultures failed. Her later antibody test detects them without requiring growth.
What we’re looking for
That supports using the new test to detect bacteria in the water she had already identified. It doesn't tell us that every outbreak starts the same way or that bacteria occur in every stretch of coastline.
Working the answers
- A
Colwell's findings challenge the idea that new locations can acquire the bacteria only through human hosts. They don't establish that movement through the ocean accounts for most cases. A possible additional route isn't a measured majority.
- B
We don't know precisely what awakens the bacteria. Colwell considers changes in seawater temperature or salinity as possible triggers, but nothing establishes that a human host is usually required. The claim about “most cases” adds a frequency the research doesn't supply.
- C
Environmental persistence gives us another explanation for outbreaks; it doesn't rule out introducing active bacteria into a new location. Human transmission can still occur. “Never” incorrectly eliminates that possibility.
- DCorrect
Colwell believed the bacteria were present in the Chesapeake Bay samples. Her new method detects bacteria even when culture methods miss them. She would therefore expect the new test to reveal the bacteria she had reported finding there. This connects her earlier claim with the demonstrated capability of her later technique.
- E
The Asian study involved 52 suspect samples, not water from every coastal region throughout Asia. Its results support the method's usefulness in those samples, but don't establish bacteria's presence across that entire geographical range.
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