Preparing for Civil Service Examination: Reading Comprehension Practice 1

Do you often worry about how to improve your reading comprehension level efficiently? Now, our website has carefully prepared a series of reading comprehension questions closely related to Civil Service Examination, covering a wide range of topics and question types, aiming to hone your reading analysis and comprehension skills in all aspects.

Read the passages and answer the questions that follow. Good luck!

 

Antibiotics and similar drugs, together called antimicrobial agents, have been used for the last 70 years to treat patients who have infectious diseases. Since the 1940s, these drugs have greatly reduced illness and death from infectious diseases. Antibiotics have been beneficial and, when prescribed and taken correctly, their value in patient care is enormous. However, these drugs have been used so widely and for so long that the infectious organisms the antibiotics are designed to kill have adapted to them, making the drugs less effective. Many fungi, viruses, and parasites have done the same. Some microorganisms may develop resistance to a single antimicrobial agent (or related class of agent), while others develop resistance to several antimicrobial agents or classes. These organisms are often referred to as multidrug-resistant or MDR strains. In some cases, the microorganisms have become so resistant that no available antibiotics are effective against them. Antimicrobial drug resistance occurs everywhere in the world and is not limited to industrialized nations. Hospitals and other healthcare settings are battling drug-resistant organisms that spread inside these institutions. Drug-resistant infections also spread in the community at large. Examples include drug-resistant pneumonias, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and skin and soft tissue infections. People infected with drug-resistant organisms are more likely to have longer and more expensive hospital stays, and may be more likely to die as a result of the infection. When the drug of choice for treating their infection doesn’t work, they require treatment with second- or third-choice drugs that may be less effective, more toxic, and more expensive. This means that patients with an antimicrobial-resistant infection may suffer more and pay more for treatment.

 

1. Which of the following would the author be most likely to recommend regarding this passage?

a. A stronger focus in research should be implemented to combat multidrug-resistant strains.
b. An increase in funding should be given to third world countries in an effort to both treat and research new MDR strains.
c. Staph and MRSA should be listed as deadly diseases.
d. Safe sex education should be reprioritized as paramount, as it’s a
controllable variable whereas the spreading of soft tissue infections isn’t.
e. Healthcare professionals should lower their fees for people who suffer from MDR strains.

Correct Answer: a

Answer Explanation:

The author’s concern is clearly stated: Although antibiotics have been useful to date, new illnesses have developed that will not be combated by this treatment approach. The author never implies that funding be given to third world countries, therefore the answer is not choice b. It is never implied that staph and MRSA should be listed as deadly diseases, therefore choice c is incorrect. Sexually transmitted diseases are not the main concern of the author, so the answer is not choice d. It is not implied that fees will be lowered for patients in spite of having to pay more, so the answer is not choice e.

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2. Which of the following best expresses the main idea of the passage?

a. Drug-resistant infections are causing an increase in hospital and medical fees.
b. Drug-resistant pneumonia and fierce STDs are on their way to becoming a global epidemic unless preparedness action is aggressively taken.
c. The longtime use of certain antibiotics has rendered them ineffective against the ever-adapting viruses they combat.
d. The value of antibiotics has been underestimated; hence, its continuing development has been neglected.
e. Antibiotics are frequently not taken correctly, weakening the immune system against MDR strains.

Correct Answer: c

Answer Explanation:

The main idea of the passage is stated after the word however, a usually telling transitional word. “However, these drugs have been used so widely and for so long that the infectious organisms the antibiotics are designed to kill have adapted to them, making the drugs less effective.” The fact that drug-resistant infections are becoming more problematic is a supporting idea, so choice a is incorrect. There is no implication that an epidemic will ensue, so the answer is not choice b. The development of antibiotics has not been neglected, so choice d is incorrect. Choice e is not true according to the passage.

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3. Of the following situations, which most resembles the information regarding antibiotics in the passage?

a. a superhero who has lost his invisibility powers
b. a cucumber in a salt solution halfway on a course to being a pickle
c. a sixteenth-century castle surrounded by a giant moat hosting a kingdom that is being attacked by a rival empire that has canoes
d. two apple pies entered in a bake-off, one made with Granny Smith apples and one made with Red Delicious
e. Buying tickets to a sold-out show on the street outside the venue rather than on the Internet through an overinflated third-party source

Correct Answer: c

Answer Explanation:

The antibiotics used to work to combat illness, but have lost their efficiency as the illnesses have adapted to their defenses, just as a moat may have been effective to protect a kingdom until enemies found a way to get across the water. A superhero losing any power wouldn’t speak to the evil attacking it or why it needed to be invisible to begin with, so choice a is incorrect. Choice b is incorrect because a cucumber in a salt solution becoming a pickle is similar to viruses changing, but doesn’t resemble this situation as there is no parallel to the antibiotics stagnation. Two pies of different flavors in a bake-off isn’t anything like the antibiotics situation, and neither is buying tickets to a show anywhere, so choices d and e are incorrect.

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