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: Bacteria have the ability to ____ themselves.
- A.
change
- B.
kill
- C.
adapt
- D.
multiply
Attempted by 4 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
In a vocabulary-in-context question drawn from a passage, the blank must be filled with the exact word (or its exact grammatical form) that the passage itself already uses for that idea — not merely a word that sounds thematically related. The reliable method is to locate the specific sentence in the passage that answers the blank and match its wording precisely.
The passage states: "Bacteria vary tremendously and have a great ability to adapt themselves to circumstances." This sentence directly supplies the missing verb for the stem, "Bacteria have the ability to ____ themselves."
Why the other options do not fit:
"change" is too generic a term for the specific action the passage describes; the passage does not credit bacteria with a vague, unspecified change, so this word is broader than what the sentence actually states.
"kill" describes ending life; the passage is about bacteria's own response to circumstances, not about destroying something, so this option misreads the direction of the sentence.
"multiply" describes reproduction — an increase in number — a different capability altogether from the one the passage credits to bacteria in this sentence.
The word the passage uses — and the matching option among the four alternatives — is "adapt," so that option is the correct fill for the blank.