Elizabeth Hazen and Rachel Brown copatented one of the most widely acclaimed wonder drugs of the post-Second World War years. Ha

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问题     Elizabeth Hazen and Rachel Brown copatented one of the most widely acclaimed wonder drugs of the post-Second World War years. Hazen and Brown’s work was stimulated by the wartime need to find a cure for the fungus(真菌类) infections that afflicted many military personnel. Scientists had been feverishly searching for an antibiotic toxic enough to kill the fungi but safe enough for human use, since, unfortunately, the new "wonder drugs" such as penicillin and streptomycin(链霉素) killed the very bacteria in the body that controlled the fungi. It was to discover a fungicide without that double effect that Brown, of New York State’s Department of Health Laboratories at Albany, and Hazen, senior microbiologist at the Department of Health in New York, began their long-distance collaboration. Based upon Hazen’s previous research at Columbia University, where she had built an impressive collection of fungus cultures, both were convinced that an antifungal organism already existed in certain soils.
    They divided the work. Hazen methodically screened and cultured scores of soil samples, which she then sent to her partner, who prepared extracts, isolated and purified active agents, and shipped them back to New York, where Hazen could study their biological properties. On a 1948 vacation, Hazen accidentally collected a clump of soil from the edge of W.B. Nourse’s cow pasture in Fauquier County, Virginia, that, when tested, revealed the presence of the microorganisms. In farm owner Nourse’s honor, Hazen named it Streptomyces noursci , and within a year the two scientists knew that the properties of their substance distinguished it from previously described antibiotics. After further research they eventually reduced their substance to a fine, yellow powder, which they first named "fungiciden", then renamed "nystatin"(to honor the New York State laboratory) when they learned the previous name was already in use. Of their major discovery, Brown said lightly that it simply illustrated "how unpredictable consequences can come from rather modest beginnings."
What is the main topic of the passage?

选项 A、The lives of Hazen and Brown.
B、The development of a safe fungicide.
C、The New York State Department of Health.
D、The development of penicillin.

答案B

解析 本文首先指出了Elizabeth Hazen and Rachel Brown所取得的成就,然后按照事件发展的先后顺序说明他们俩是怎样合作成功地研制出这种wonder drug的,因此B项正确。该题的解题既可以从篇章的结构上下手,也可以从选项中的核心词汇入手,逐一分析,排除错误选项,选取正确答案。
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