#1

This Inference question asks for the author's opinion of "microbial medicine," a term that shows up in the last paragraph. Here, the author discusses the possibility of a "new branch of pharmaceuticals" and states that it has "intriguing and broad implications." This positive language indicates the author's opinion. Microbial medicine is thought to hold promise because of the results of experiments on mice, discussed in the preceding sentence. (C) paraphrases the ideas in the last two sentences of the passage and is correct. Note the tentative phrasing "may indicate," which matches the author's caveat that experimental results with mice may not translate to humans. (A) is incorrect. The second sentence of the third paragraph points out that the digestive tract has "the highest concentration of microbes," so it is actually an ideal part of the body to study in order to further the potential of microbial medicine. The human genome mentioned in (B) is discussed in the first paragraph. Researchers are already using their "better grasp" of how microbial genes interact with human genes to make progress, so while it is possible that a complete understanding of the human genome is necessary for microbial medicine to reach its full potential, the passage does not provide evidence for this idea. (D) may have been tempting because the author mentions some of the potential harmful effects of antibiotics in the second paragraph. However, the author never compares the relative benefits of microbial medicine and antibiotics, making this choice incorrect. (E) is incorrect. The first paragraph ends saying that researchers may be able to "curb and—in some instances—reverse the progress of disease." Moreover, from the third paragraph, you can infer that since weight loss can be achieved in mice, an application of microbial medicine might be able to reverse obesity and potentially other health conditions, not just slow their progress.


#2

This question stem begins with the phrase "[a]ccording to the passage," so this is a Detail question. The passage begins by saying researchers know more about the human microbiome than they used to and goes on to outline a number of potential consequences of this knowledge. Research each choice in this all-that-apply question in the passage. (A) reflects information in the last paragraph about experiments on mice to test how different microbiomes affect weight, so this choice is correct. (B) paraphrases information from the first paragraph, where the author says that "innovative techniques" are being used because researchers have "a better grasp of how millions of microbial genes interact with the tens of thousands of genes that make up the human genome." (C) appears in the second paragraph, where the author cites a professor who believes antibiotics "have also contributed to a new set of diseases" that resist treatment.