The Growing Global Threat Of Antibiotic Resistance Ielts Reading Answers Top

Here are the correct answers with explanations and location of evidence in the text.

Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3?
Write YES, NO, or NOT GIVEN.

Do the following statements agree with the information in Reading Passage 1?
Write TRUE, FALSE, or NOT GIVEN.

Headline: 🚨 IELTS Reading Alert: The "Antibiotic Resistance" Passage 🚨

Are you struggling with the "The Growing Global Threat of Antibiotic Resistance" reading passage? You aren't alone! This is one of the most common—and difficult—texts used in the IELTS Academic module. 🧬 Here are the correct answers with explanations and

Many students lose marks here because of tricky True/False/Not Given questions and complex vocabulary regarding medical science.

To help you ace your next practice test, we have compiled the Top Reading Answers and Explanations.

💡 Quick Tips for this Passage: 1️⃣ Scan for Keywords: Look for specific years (e.g., "1940s") and names of bacteria. 2️⃣ Watch for Paraphrases: "Antibiotic resistance" might appear as "drug-resistant infections" or "superbugs." 3️⃣ Understand the Logic: Don't just match words; ensure the meaning matches the question.

👇 Check the answers below to analyze your mistakes!

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The discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming in 1928 ushered in the golden age of antibiotics. For the first time in human history, bacterial infections that were once death sentences—such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, and sepsis—became manageable, curable conditions. However, just over nine decades later, this medical miracle is waning. The rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), commonly known as antibiotic resistance, is now recognised by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the top ten global public health threats facing humanity.

Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria evolve to survive exposure to drugs that would normally kill them. This is a natural evolutionary process, but it has been drastically accelerated by human behaviour. The primary drivers are twofold: overuse and misuse in human medicine, and the rampant use of antibiotics in agriculture. In many countries, antibiotics are prescribed for viral infections like the common cold—against which they are entirely ineffective—or patients fail to complete their prescribed courses, allowing partially resistant bacterial strains to survive and multiply. Simultaneously, an estimated 70-80% of all antibiotics sold globally are used in livestock and aquaculture, not to treat disease, but to promote growth and prevent infection in crowded, unsanitary conditions. This creates an immense reservoir of resistant bacteria that can transfer to humans through the food chain and the environment.

The consequences of this trend are already visible. Common infections, such as urinary tract infections (UTIs), pneumonia, and gonorrhoea, are becoming increasingly difficult to treat. A patient with a resistant infection may require second- or third-line drugs, which are often more toxic, more expensive, and require longer hospital stays. In the worst cases, doctors are forced to revert to ‘last-resort’ antibiotics like colistin, a drug so toxic it can cause kidney failure. When colistin fails, the infection becomes untreatable. According to a 2019 report by the UN Ad Hoc Interagency Coordinating Group on Antimicrobial Resistance, at least 700,000 people die each year from drug-resistant diseases. If no action is taken, this number is projected to rise dramatically: to 10 million deaths per year by 2050, surpassing cancer as a leading cause of death.

Compounding this crisis is the stagnation of the antibiotic pipeline. The ‘golden age’ of antibiotic discovery ended decades ago. Large pharmaceutical companies have largely abandoned antibiotic research due to poor financial incentives. A new cancer drug can be sold for thousands of dollars per dose and taken for months; a new antibiotic, by contrast, must be used sparingly to prevent resistance, and for short durations, making it far less profitable. Consequently, only two new classes of antibiotics have reached the market in the last 50 years. Even when new drugs are developed, resistant strains often emerge within a few years of their introduction. Do the following statements agree with the claims

Addressing the growing global threat of antibiotic resistance requires a coordinated ‘One Health’ approach that recognises the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health. Key strategies include: improving infection prevention through vaccination and hygiene, reducing unnecessary agricultural use, investing in rapid diagnostic tests to distinguish viral from bacterial infections, and creating new economic models to incentivise antibiotic research. Countries like the United Kingdom have introduced ‘subscription’ models, where governments pay pharmaceutical companies upfront for access to antibiotics, regardless of how many doses are sold.

International bodies such as the WHO, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) have launched a Global Action Plan on AMR, which over 150 countries have signed. However, implementation remains inconsistent, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where regulatory oversight is weak and antibiotics are often available without a prescription. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated how quickly a global health threat can escalate when preparedness is lacking. Antibiotic resistance is slower moving, but far more insidious. It represents a silent pandemic—one that threatens to undo a century of medical progress.

Label the diagram/chart summary below using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from Passage 3 for each blank.

The AWaRe Classification System

Example of successful national action:

Future non-antibiotic therapies: