Self-study
Support Ampicillin and other modern antibiotics kill a much wider variety of bacteria than penicillin does. ████ ████ █████ ██████ ██████ ████████ ██ ████ █████████ ███ ████ ██ █████████ ██ ████ █████████████ ███ ██████ ████ ██████████ ████████████ ████ █████ █████ █ ██████████ █████████ ███████ ███████ ██ ███ ███ ████ ████ ████████ ███ ███████████ ██ █████ █████ ████ █████ █████████ ██ ████████████ █████ █████ █████ ███████████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ██ ██ ████████ ██ ████████ ██████ ██ ██████████████ █████████ █████ ████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that newer antibiotics which kill a wider range of bacteria than does penicillin will likely lead to drug-resistant bacterial disease outbreaks. The author supports this conclusion by claiming that the profitability of new antibiotics makes drug companies more likely to stop manufacturing older antibiotics like penicillin. In turn, doctors will have to prescribe newer antibiotics. There’s also a missing premise, which we need to fill in to strengthen.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that more widespread use of new antibiotics which target more types of bacteria has more potential to lead to antibiotic resistance compared to penicillin use.
12.
The conclusion of the argument ██ ████ ████████ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ █████████ ███ ████████
a
drug-resistant bacteria flourish ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███████████ ████ █ ████ ███████ ██ █████ ████████
This strengthens by providing a mechanism by which the increased prescription of new antibiotics could cause drug-resistant bacterial disease outbreaks, by reducing the competition for drug-resistant bacteria due to killing a wider variety of other bacteria.
b
older antibiotics like ██████████ ████ ████ ██████ ████ ███ ████ ███████
This is irrelevant. The argument only claims that newer antibiotics will displace the older penicillin, regardless of how long penicillin has been in use. This also doesn’t tell us anything about how penicillin has affected antibiotic resistance so far.
c
a shortage of ██████████ █████ █████ ██ ███ █████ ███ ██████ ██████
If anything, this weakens the argument by rebutting the author’s claim that drug manufacturers would only sell newer antibiotics—after all, if penicillin became more profitable, they’d probably put it back on the market. Either way, this doesn’t explain the antibiotic resistance.
d
treatment of diseases ████ ███ ████████ ███ ███████████ ██ ████ ████ █████████ ████ █████████ ████ ███ █████ ████
This is irrelevant, because the penicillin shortage predicted by the author is a result of what products drug manufacturers choose to sell, not the cost of treatment down the line.
e
most bacteria that ███ █████████ ██ ██████████ ███ ███ █████████ ██ ██████████ ███ █████ ██████ ███████████
This weakens the argument, because it demonstrates how new antibiotics could actually reduce antibiotic resistance, by killing bacteria that resist penicillin. It certainly doesn’t strengthen the conclusion that new antibiotics would lead to more resistance.