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While antibiotics have done inestimable good to humankind over the last seventy years, there are several drawbacks to using antibiotics that, until recently, have been overlooked. The human microbiome, which consists of the trillions of bacteria that reside in each person’s body, is essential to good health. Specifically, the body contains and requires both “good” and “bad” bacteria. It is when the proper equilibrium between the “good” bacteria and the “bad” bacteria is disrupted that a number of health issues can emerge. Nonetheless, antibiotics indiscriminately kill both the “good” and the “bad” bacteria, so each course of antibiotics should be followed by a treatment that ___________________________________.
Which of the following most logically completes the argument above?
Title
While antibiotics
Your Result
Correct
Difficulty
Easy
Your Pace
0:03
Others' Pace
1:09
Video Explanation
Text Explanation
Answer: (C)
It is tempting to think answer (B), which says that the “bad” bacteria should be eliminated. However, the passage says that the “good” and “bad” bacteria are essential to the body, and that they have to the right balance—one that is upset during a course of antibiotics. Therefore, the best answer is one that speaks to the idea of restoring the correct balance of “good” and “bad” bacteria after the course of antibiotics. Therefore (C) is the best answer.
(A) is wrong because a treatment that “bypasses” the microbiome doesn’t deal with the initial problem: the potential imbalance between “good” and “bad” bacteria.
(B) See above.
(C) See above.
(D) It’s not that the antibiotics are bad. It is the effects of antibiotics (disruption of the balance between “good” and “bad” bacteria that needs to be addressed.
(E) may at first seem like the answer. But what is the point of taking a course of antibiotics only to undo the effects. Remember, the passage says that “antibiotics have done inestimable good”, so we don’t want to reverse all the effects only the ones that are negative—in this case the disruption in the balance between “good” and “bad” bacteria.
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