Read the passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the best answer to each of the following questions from 3...

Read the passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the best answer to each of the following questions from 31 to 40.

        Human microbiome science promises therapies for chronic conditions ranging from inflammatory bowel disease to diabetes. Yet collecting microbiome samples from Indigenous communities is shadowed by exploitation and exclusion from benefits. An emerging coalition argues for a relational framework to reconfigure ownership, consent, and benefit-sharing so participation becomes co-governed rather than extractive. [I] By foregrounding community priorities, the framework aims to rectify entrenched inequities that have long privileged Western medicine while sidelining Indigenous interests and knowledges.

        Scholars note that microbes associated with Indigenous peoples have been framed as valuable resources to restore lost microbial diversity and treat chronic disease in industrialized populations; however, such projects frequently decenter the very communities whose data make them possible. [II] As Alyssa Bader and colleagues contend, the problem is not curiosity but governance: research trajectories can be clinically promising yet ethically misaligned when community needs, terms of participation, and future benefits are not centered from the outset.

        To counter this drift, the proposed framework anchors microbiome work in the Indigenous principle of relationality, emphasizing mutual obligations among people, data, lands, and non-humans. [III] This includes ensuring Indigenous partners lead in formulating questions, co-designing consent and data protocols, and interpreting and communicating findings. In practice, deep collaboration means sovereignty is upheld through community-controlled repositories, culturally grounded consent processes, and transparent data stewardship, so that impact is defined with, not for, communities.

        Microbiome ownership, then, is less about exclusive property than about situated stewardship and fair return. [IV] Ethical practice requires clear benefit-sharing, community governance over sample use, and data access rules that honor provenance and protect against future misuse. The “Nature Microbiology” perspective pieces develop these commitments into operational guidance, urging researchers and institutions to institutionalize co-governance, track benefits over time, and avoid extractive logics masquerading as innovation.

(Adapted from McGill University Newsroom, “A relational framework for microbiome research that includes Indigenous communities”)

Question 31. The word rectify in paragraph 1 mostly means ______.

A. loosely palliative                                        B. merely cosmetic

C. effectively remedial                                D. purely symbolic

Question 32. Where in the passage does the following sentence best fit?

Yet without governance grounded in sovereignty, benefit-sharing easily becomes perfunctory rather than transformative.

A. [I]                        B. [II]                                C. [III]                                D. [IV]

Question 33. Which of the following best summarises paragraph 2?

A. Indigenous-linked microbes are valorised for therapies, yet projects sideline communities, revealing clinically promising but ethically misaligned research pathways.

B. Technical obstacles impede data analysis, so scientists postpone fieldwork until new sequencing platforms mature.

C. Community leaders reject microbiome studies entirely, preventing any collaboration with external institutions or laboratories.

D. Funding shortfalls alone explain why benefit-sharing agreements have not materialised despite widespread consent.

Question 34. What principle guides the framework?

A. market reciprocity incentives                        B. methodological individualism

C. precautionary commercialization                        D. relationality in Indigenous ethics

Question 35. According to paragraph 3, research teams should guarantee ______ before any sampling begins.

A. publicity rights and branded acknowledgments across all future research outputs

B. Indigenous decision authority through consent, governance, and results interpretation structures

C. exclusive licensing of all potential therapies in perpetuity to communities

D. royalty payments fixed at a universal rate for all studies

Question 36. What does “microbiome ownership” primarily entail in this passage?

A. legal title transferring complete control to universities and national biobanks forever

B. open-sourcing all data globally despite provenance and cultural obligations concerns

C. shared stewardship of samples, access rules, and fair, trackable benefit distribution

D. short-term material transfers enabling rapid trials, with later negotiations as needed

Question 37. The phrase such projects in paragraph 2 refers to ______.

A. chronic disease programs                        B. community consent policies

C. industrial hygiene protocols                        D. Indigenous microbiome projects

Question 38. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

A. If publication authorship lists include community members, ownership questions are automatically resolved for future uses.

B. Once anonymized, microbiome data cease to carry cultural meaning and need no governance at all.

C. Clinical efficacy alone is sufficient to justify sample reuse across unrelated projects without renewed consultation.

D. Without co-governance, successful applications may reproduce extraction, leaving communities with little control, unclear benefits, and possible downstream harms.

Question 39. Which of the following best paraphrases the underlined sentence in paragraph 3?

This includes ensuring Indigenous partners lead in formulating questions, co-designing consent and data protocols, and interpreting and communicating findings.

A. Researchers should seek community feedback only after experiments conclude, mainly about writing style and media outreach strategies for publication.

B. Consent documents should be simplified while scientists retain final say on methods and interpretations to maintain research rigor and validity.

C. Indigenous partners must steer the agenda – from questions to consent to analysis – and share authority over how findings are explained publicly.

D. External ethics boards, not communities, should verify anonymization before public dissemination occurs to ensure compliance with privacy regulations.

Question 40. Which of the following best summarises the passage?

A. Microbiome science fails because current sequencing technologies remain prohibitively expensive for remote field sites.

B. Benefit-sharing cannot work in practice, so communities should avoid microbiome research altogether.

C. A relational, sovereignty-respecting framework redefines microbiome ownership through co-governance, consent, data stewardship, and equitable benefits for Indigenous communities.

D. International journals already impose sufficient rules; additional community governance would unnecessarily slow discovery.