Question

text structures quick check
\day we discovered cause of white death\
by dr. howard markel
like many young physicians of this era, koch was struck by an intense fascination with all things microscopic, a fixation some medical critics derided as “bacteriomania.” unlike his senior colleagues who ascribed epidemics to the contamination of the air with foul or unpleasant emanations, a notion referred to as the miasmatic theory, dr. koch sided with those who would become the scientific revolutionaries of their day by asserting and ultimately proving that specific microbes were the cause of specific infectious diseases.
use the passage to answer the question.
which states a cause - and - effect relationship found in the excerpt?
(1 point)

• doctors challenged dr. koch, so he sided with revolutionaries.
• epidemics are caused by specific microbes.
• diseases caused foul or unpleasant emanations.
• dr. koch’s colleagues unwittingly caused disease.

Explanation:

• For the first option: The passage says Dr. Koch sided with revolutionaries, but there's no info that doctors challenging him caused this, so it's incorrect.
• For the second option: The passage states that Dr. Koch and the scientific revolutionaries asserted and proved that specific microbes were the cause of specific infectious diseases (which include epidemics), so this shows a cause - effect relationship where specific microbes cause epidemics.
• For the third option: The passage presents the miasmatic theory (foul air causes disease) as what some colleagues believed, but the option reverses the cause - effect (says diseases cause foul emanations), which is not supported.
• For the fourth option: There's no indication in the passage that Dr. Koch's colleagues unwillingly caused disease.

Answer:

B. Epidemics are caused by specific microbes.