SAT #11 Reading (Question 46)

Question

The author of Passage 2 would most likely agree with which statement about the development of teixobactin?

Answer 1

Answer Choice D is the correct answer because Lines 51-56 say that “Many good antibiotic families — penicillin, streptomycin, tetracycline — come from soil fungi and bacteria and it has long been suspected that, if we could grow more types of bacteria from soil — or from exotic environments, such as deep oceans — then we might find new natural antibiotics.” The phrase, “long been suspected,” makes these Lines most clearly match Answer Choice D, which says that the author of Passage 2 would agree with the statement that the development of teixobactin “confirms a long-held belief about a potential source of new antibiotics.” Answer Choice A is incorrect because the Passage says that teixobactin is ineffective against gram-negative bacteria, not effective against it. Answer Choice B is incorrect because the development of teixobactin used an unconventional method for its development. Answer Choice C is incorrect because there’s no evidence that the development of teixobactin should cast doubt on the practicality of searching new exotic environments, and, in fact, the development of teixobactin shows that there is practicality in this kind of search.

How to solve this? The Question asks, “The author of Passage 2 would most likely agree with which statement about the development of teixobactin?” To solve this, we should go back to the Passage first to try and identify what we already know about the author of Passage 2’s perspective on the development of teixobactin. Because this question is the first that concerns Passage 2, and because it references the “development” of teixobactin, we can expect our Text to come earlier in the Passage. Moreover, using the Question Order Rule, we can predict that our Text is likely to come before Line 79.

In the first paragraph, we see that the author makes a number of points about the development of teixobactin. One, he takes an overall positive stance towards the development, saying that, “this simple and elegant methodology is their most important finding to my mind.” Two, he mentions that “it has long been suspected” that antibiotics could have been found by cultivating different types of bacteria. At this point, we should go down to our answer choices, looking for any choice that matches our Passage.

Answer Choice A says that the author of Passage 2 would agree that the development of teixobactin “reveals that some antibiotics are effective against gram-negative bacteria.” Because later in the Passage, the author says that these antibiotics are in fact ineffective against gram-negative bacteria, we should eliminate this option. Answer Choice B says that the author of Passage 2 would agree that the development of teixobactin “shows that conventional methods can still yield new types of antibiotics.” However, because the development of teixobactin used unconventional methods, not conventional ones, we should eliminate this option. Answer Choice C says that the author of Passage 2 would agree that the development of teixobactin “casts doubt on the practicality of searching for new antibiotics in exotic environments.” Because the discovery of teixobactin would actually support the practicality of this kind of search, we should eliminate this option as well. Answer Choice D says that the author of Passage 2 would agree that the development of teixobactin “confirms a long-held belief about a potential source of new antibiotics.” Because this answer choice does match our understanding of the Passage, that “it has long been suspected” that antibiotics could be found in the manner that they were with teixobactin, we should keep this option. That leaves us with Answer Choice D, which we should choose as our correct option.