PT122.S3.P3.Q16

PrepTest 122 - Section 3 - Passage 3 - Question 16

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P1

Surviving sources of information about women doctors in ancient Greece and Rome are fragmentary: some passing mentions by classical authors, scattered references in medical works, and about 40 inscriptions on tombs and monuments. ███

Intro to Topic · Not a lot of evidence about ancient female doctors
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Main Point · There were female doctors in the ancient world
I'm anticipating that the rest of the passage will dive into the "evidence" for this claim.
P2

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Premise · Scant written evidence indicatives that presence of women doctors were taken for granted
Author seems to be claiming that if it was such an odd thing for women to be doctors that surely there would have been more written about this. But that there wasn't is taken to be evidence that women doctors were nothing special.
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Example · Plato's The Republic refers to women doctors
He's was not arguing that women ought to be doctors. From his argument, we can infer that he and his society simply took it for granted that women already were doctors.
P3

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Premise · Women were not just midwives; they were doctors
Greek and Latin have different terms for "midwife" and "doctor." Texts suggest that they treated disease, not just delivered babies.
P4

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Premise · Medical texts cited female doctors without special comment
Author takes this to be evidence that the presence of women doctors were taken for granted, that it wasn't special.
Passage Style
Single position
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16.

The primary function of the █████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ██

a

provide additional support ███ ███ ████████ █████████ ██ ███ █████ █████████

The argument presented in P1 is that there were women doctors in the ancient world. P3 provides additional support for this argument by showing that women really were doctors; they weren’t only midwives.

87%
b

suggest that the ████████████ ██ ███ ████████ █████████ ██ ███ █████ █████████ ███ █████████████ █████

The argument presented in P1 is that there were women doctors in the ancient world. P3 doesn’t suggest that the implications of this argument are too broad. Instead, it clarifies that women doctors had “a broad scope of practice;” they weren’t only midwives. In other words P3 tries to broaden the implications of the argument in P1.

1%
c

acknowledge some exceptions ██ █ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ █████████

The conclusion defended in P2 is that women doctors were an unremarkable part of ancient life. P3 doesn’t mention any exceptions to this. Instead, P3 furthers the argument made in P1.

3%
d

emphasize the historical ██████████ ██ ███ █████████ █████████ ██ ███ █████ ███ ██████████

P1 and P2 argue that there were women doctors in the ancient world and they were an unremarkable part of ancient life. P3 does not address the “historical importance” of these arguments. It just provides more support for the argument in P1.

5%
e

describe the sources ██ ████████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ███ █████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ ██████████

P3 describes some evidence— important texts and inscriptions, an epitaph, and a tribute. But these are not cited in P1 and P2. Instead, they’re cited in P3 to provide support for the argument that there were women doctors in the ancient world.

5%

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