According to the passage, what did Fleming do after noticing that the bacteria had died?
In 1928, Alexander Fleming returned from holiday to find that a mould had contaminated one of his bacterial cultures. Around the mould, the bacteria had died. Rather than discarding the dish, Fleming investigated and named the mould's active substance penicillin. Yet it was more than a decade before Howard Florey and Ernst Chain developed a way to produce penicillin in quantities large enough to treat patients.
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: B. He investigated the mould instead of throwing the dish away.
- Step 1: Locate the section in the passage detailing Fleming's reaction upon noticing the zone of dead bacteria around the mould.
- Step 2: The text states that rather than discarding the contaminated petri dish, Fleming chose to investigate the clear ring and the mould culture.
Answer
He investigated the mould instead of throwing the dish away.
Why not the others: Clinical trials on human patients were conducted much later by Florey and Chain, not immediately by Fleming.
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