The Growing Global Threat Of Antibiotic Resistance Ielts Reading Answers Top Better Jun 2026
" (sometimes found under the title " The Rise of Antibiotic Resistant Infections ") explores the evolution of "superbugs" and the critical challenges facing modern medicine.
: There are now bacterial infections for which no effective antibiotic exists. Summary of the Informative Story
The primary catalyst behind this accelerating crisis is the profound misuse and overuse of antibiotics worldwide. In human medicine, patients frequently demand antibiotics for viral infections like the common cold or influenza, against which these drugs are completely ineffective. Healthcare providers often prescribe broad-spectrum antibiotics prematurely due to diagnostic uncertainty or pressure from patients. Furthermore, in many developing nations, potent antibiotics are sold over the counter without a prescription. This lack of regulation allows untrained individuals to self-medicate, frequently using incorrect dosages or failing to complete the full course of treatment, which creates ideal conditions for resistance to develop. " (sometimes found under the title " The
Beyond the clinic, an even larger volume of antibiotics is consumed within the agricultural industry. Worldwide, massive quantities of critically important antimicrobials are administered to livestock, poultry, and farmed fish. Crucially, these drugs are not used simply to treat sick animals; instead, they are mixed into daily feed at low doses as growth promoters and preventative measures against the crowded, unsanitary conditions characteristic of factory farming. This industrial-scale bathing of livestock in low-dose antibiotics creates an ideal breeding ground for resistant strains. These superbugs subsequently enter the human food chain through contaminated meat products, runoff into local water supplies, or direct contact between agricultural workers and livestock.
Complete the summary below. Choose from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 12–14 on your answer sheet. This lack of regulation allows untrained individuals to
At its core, antibiotic resistance is a natural evolutionary phenomenon. When a population of bacteria is exposed to an antimicrobial drug, the most susceptible organisms are eradicated. However, due to spontaneous genetic mutations, a minute fraction of the bacterial population may possess traits that allow them to survive the chemical onslaught. These surviving "superbugs" then replicate, passing their resistant genes on to their progeny. More alarmingly, bacteria can engage in horizontal gene transfer—a process by which they share resistance mechanisms directly with neighboring bacteria of entirely different species. Human activities have dramatically accelerated this natural selection process, turning a slow evolutionary crawl into a global sprint.
The rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a result of (1) ______. When an antibiotic is used, it creates a (2) ______ pressure, killing vulnerable bacteria while resistant ones survive and multiply. This problem is made worse by the (3) ______ of antibiotics in human medicine and livestock farming. The World Health Organization reports that around (4) ______ in six infections worldwide are now resistant to standard treatments. Among the most dangerous pathogens are (5) ______-negative bacteria, which are increasingly difficult to treat. They also made complex surgeries
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For nearly a century, antibiotics have been the bedrock of modern medicine. Since Alexander Fleming’s chance discovery of penicillin in 1928, these miracle drugs have saved hundreds of millions of lives. They transformed once-fatal infections—like pneumonia, tuberculosis, and rheumatic fever—into easily treatable ailments. They also made complex surgeries, organ transplants, and cancer therapies possible by shielding vulnerable patients from opportunistic bacterial infections. However, this golden age of medicine is under severe threat. Paragraph B
An explanation of how resistant traits can be transferred between different species of bacteria.
