Direction : Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each…
2023
Direction : Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives and click the button corresponding to it.
In May 1966, the World Health Organization was authorized to initiate a global campaign to eradicate smallpox. The goal was to eradicate the disease in one decade. Because similar projects for malaria and yellow fever had failed, few believed that smallpox could actually be eradicated but eleven years after the initial organization of the campaign, no cases were reported in the field.
The strategy was not only to provide mass vaccinations, but also to isolate patients with active smallpox in order to contain the spread of the disease and to break the chain of human transmission. Rewards for reporting smallpox assisted in motivating the public to aid health workers. One by one, each smallpox victim was sought out, removed from contact with others and treated. At the same time, the entire village where the victim had lived was vaccinated. Today smallpox is no longer a threat to humanity. Routine vaccinations have been stopped worldwide.
It can be inferred that—
- A.
No new cases of smallpox have been reported this year
- B.
Malaria and yellow fever have been eliminated
- C.
Smallpox victims no longer die when they contract the disease
- D.
Smallpox is not transmitted from one person to another
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: A
Concept: An inference question asks you to pick the statement that the passage's stated facts and their logical implications actually support — without adding anything the text does not license. A correct inference follows from the details given; it must not simply restate one line, and it must not reach further than the passage allows.
Application: The passage states that no cases were reported in the field eleven years after the campaign began, and it then adds, in the present tense, that smallpox is "no longer a threat to humanity" and that routine vaccination has been stopped worldwide. Public-health authorities stop routine vaccination only once they are confident no ongoing transmission or new cases remain — so these three details converge on the conclusion that the disease is not occurring anywhere at present, i.e., no new cases have been reported.
Cross-check — why the other three options overreach or contradict the text:
“Malaria and yellow fever have been eliminated” is unsupported — the passage only says earlier eradication attempts for those diseases had failed; it makes no claim about where they stand today.
“Smallpox victims no longer die when they contract the disease” reaches further than the text supports — the passage describes isolating patients and vaccinating villages to stop spread, and never discusses treatment outcomes or survival rates at all.
“Smallpox is not transmitted person to person” is directly contradicted — the passage's own strategy of breaking “the chain of human transmission” confirms that person-to-person spread was real.
Result: The inference most directly licensed by the passage's own words — zero cases at the eleven-year mark, plus the present-day statement that the disease is no longer a threat and that routine vaccination has stopped worldwide — is that no new cases of smallpox have been reported.