Question

penicillin. there was little progress in using penicillin to treat human illness, however, until a group of researchers at oxford university, directed by howard florey and ernest chain, learned how to produce stable, potent penicillin in sizable enough quantities to make it a practical weapon against bacterial disease. the first human trials of the new drug, in 1941, were dramatically successful, but progress toward the mass availability of penicillin was stalled in england because of world war ii. american laboratories further developed methods for the mass production and commercial distribution of penicillin, which became widely available to doctors and hospitals around the world by 1948. since then, a wide range of new antibiotics of highly specific character have been developed so that bacterial infections are now among the most successfully treated of all human illnesses.

immunization—the development of vaccines that can protect humans from contracting both bacterial and viral diseases—also progressed dramatically. the first great immunological triumph was the development of the smallpox vaccine by the english researcher edward jenner in the late eighteenth century. a vaccine effective against typhoid was developed by an english bacteriologist, almorth wright, in 1897 and was in wide use by world war i. vaccination against tetanus became widespread just before and during world war ii. medical scientists also developed a vaccine, bcg, against another major killer, tuberculosis, in the 1920s; but controversy over its safety stalled its adoption, especially in the united states, for many years. it was not widely used in the united states until after world war ii, when it largely eliminated tuberculosis until a limited recurrence began in the 1990s...

a particularly dramatic postwar triumph was the development of a vaccine against polio. in 1954, the american scientist jonas salk introduced an effective vaccine against the disease that had killed or crippled thousands of children and adults (among them franklin roosevelt). it was provided free to the public by the federal government beginning in 1955. after 1960, an oral vaccine developed by albert sabin—usually administered in a sugar cube—made widespread vaccination even easier. by the early 1960s, these vaccines had virtually eliminated polio from american life and from much of the rest of the world.

source: brinkley, alan. the unfinished nation. 7th ed., mcgraw educ, 2014.

the topic sentence of paragraph 6 is shown here. which sentence would add relevant support to the paragraph?

a particularly dramatic postwar triumph was the development of a vaccine against polio.

another disease that was nearly eliminated by vaccine was tuberculosis.

polios crippling effects were the reason franklin delano roosevelt was bound to a wheelchair.

the polio vaccine was one of the first to virtually eliminate a disease from the face of the earth.

life expectancy increased dramatically in post - war united states.

Explanation:

The topic - sentence is about the development of a polio vaccine as a postwar triumph. The correct answer should support this by further emphasizing the significance of the polio vaccine. Option A is about tuberculosis, Option B focuses on Roosevelt's connection to polio rather than the vaccine's significance, Option D is about life - expectancy and not directly related to the polio vaccine. Option C highlights the polio vaccine's impact in virtually eliminating a disease, which supports the topic - sentence.

Answer:

C. The polio vaccine was one of the first to virtually eliminate a disease from the face of the earth.