Read the passage carefully. Select your answer from the four alternatives…
2022
Read the passage carefully. Select your answer from the four alternatives given below against each question.
Bacteria vary tremendously and have a great ability to adapt themselves to circumstances. It is this quality which enables them to develop resistance to some antibiotics, like penicillins, and so defeat our attempts to overcome them. Fortunately, our own system is also able to adopt whatever drugs are given, and it is always the body's own resources that beat the enemy in the end. Man's skill in evading infection is very often not to his credit at all, for many bacteria much prefer to keep well out of harm's way and remain free living in the open air. Others live in complete harmony inside the body tissues, taking care not to disturb their protector, so that the body which shelters them is never provoked sufficiently to retaliate and expel them.
Ques: What is the passage about?
- A.
Virus
- B.
Bacteria
- C.
Medicine
- D.
Animals
Attempted by 5 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Concept: The subject/main idea of a passage is the topic that every paragraph keeps returning to, not a term that appears only once as a supporting detail. To find it, check which noun the passage repeatedly describes, explains, or discusses across all its sentences.
Application: Every sentence in this passage is about one organism: it varies tremendously, adapts to circumstances, develops resistance to antibiotics, and either stays free-living or lives inside body tissues without disturbing its host. That organism, named explicitly in the first line of the passage and referred to throughout, is bacteria.
Contrast with the other options (why each fails to be the overall subject):
Virus is not mentioned anywhere in the passage at all, so it cannot be what the passage is about.
Medicine (via "penicillins" and "drugs") appears only once, as a detail showing what the organism resists — it is not the overall topic of the passage.
Animals as a general category is never discussed; the passage stays focused on one specific organism's behaviour, not on animal life broadly.
Cross-check: Reading only the first and last sentences confirms it — both open and close on the same organism's adaptability and its relationship with the body it lives in, which is the standard test for identifying a passage's central subject.