Part B Directions: In the following
article, some sentences have been removed. For Questions 41-45, choose the most
suitable one from the list A-G to fit into each of the numbered blanks. There
are two extra choices, which do not fit in any of the blanks.
Fields across Europe are contaminated with dangerous levels of
the antibiotics given to farm animals. The drugs, which are in manure sprayed
onto fields as fertilizers, could be getting into our food and water, helping to
create a new generation of antibiotic-resistant "superbugs".
The warning comes from a researcher in Switzerland who looked at levels of
the drugs in farm slurry. 41．______ Some 20,000 tons
antibiotics are used in the European Union and the US each year. More than half
are given to farm-animals to prevent disease and promote growth. But recent
research has found a direct link between the increased use of these farmyard
drugs and the appearance of antibiotic-resistant bugs that infect people.
42．______But far more of the drugs end up in manure than
in meat products, says Stephen Mueller of the Swiss Federal Institute for
Environmental Science and Technology in Dubendorf. And manure contains
especially high levels of bugs that are resistant to antibiotics, he says.
With millions of tons of animals manure spread onto
fields of crops such as wheat and barley each year, this pathway seems an
equally likely route for spreading resistance, he said. 43．______They could also
be leaching into tap water pumped from rocks beneath fertilized fields.
Mueller is particularly concerned about a group of
antibiotics called sulphonamides. They do not easily degrade or dissolve in
water. His analysis found that Swiss farm manure contains a high percentage of
sulphonamides; each hectare of field could be contaminated with up to 1 kilogram
of the drugs. 44．______But vets are not treating the issue seriously.
There is growing concern at the extent to which drugs,
including antibiotics, are polluting the environment. 45．______
[A] The drugs contaminate the crops, which are then eaten.
[B] This concentration is high enough to trigger the
development of resistance among bacteria. [C] Animal
antibiotics is still an area to which insufficient attention has been paid.
[D] Most researchers assumed that humans become infected
with the resistant strains by eating contaminated meat.
[E] There is no doubt that the food and drink is always important to the
health. [F] Many drugs given to humans are also excreted
unchanged and are not broken down by conventional sewage treatment.
[G] His findings are particularly shocking because
Switzerland is one of the few countries to have banned antibiotics as growth
promoters in animal feed.