Self-study
Herbalist: Support While standard antibiotics typically have just one active ingredient, herbal antibacterial remedies typically contain several. █████ ████ ██████ ████████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ██████ █████ █████████████ ███████ ████ █████████ ███████ ██ ████████ ████ ███ ████████ ████████████ ███ █ ██████ ██ █████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ██████████ ██████████ ██ ██ ██████ █████████████ ██████ ██ ████ █ ██████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ██ ███████ █ ██████ ████ ████ ████ ██████ ███ ██ ███████ █████ ███████ █ ████ ███ ████ █████████ ████ █████████ ███ ████ ████ ████ ██████ █ ██████ ██████
Mapping The Analogy
The core challenge in this question (as indicated by the stem) is to map out the analogy in a way that makes sense for all the concepts. Here’s the correct mapping:
Cook = Bacteria
Pleasing Guests = Resisting Ingredients
Several Dozen Guests = Herbal Remedies (lots of active ingredients)
Single Guest = Standard Antibiotics (one active ingredient)
________
Analogy: It’s harder for the cook (bacteria) to please (resist) several dozen guests (herbal remedies) than to please (resist) a single guest (standard antibiotics).
Getting all the way here can be pretty difficult because the stimulus’ wording is intentionally thorny (notice that the concept of a Single Meal is a full-on red herring – not important to the analogy at all). In situations like this, scanning for a clear anchor point becomes critical. Here’s one:
For a strain of bacteria, the difficulty of [blah] is like a cook’s difficulty in [blah].
That gives you Cook = Bacteria, which is huge for filling in the rest of the map.
Nerd Town: Why Is This Analogy So Thorny?
Getting to the full correct mapping of the analogy is really tricky because there’s an alternative mapping that’s (intentionally) much more intuitive unless you flesh it all the way out.
For starters, it’s natural to see the remedies as the cook, thinking the analogy should be about how standard antibiotics and herbal remedies are “cooking up” ingredients to fight the bacteria, which would be the guests.
This alternative map is also supported by the natural reading that a single meal should correspond to standard antibiotics – you know, the thing with just one active ingredient.
But this interpretation breaks down if you try to flesh it all the way out. Here’s the incomplete mapping, with the missing / mismatched pieces underlined:
WRONG MAPPING
Cook = The Remedies
Pleasing Guests = Being Effective Against
Single Meal = Standard Antibiotics
Guests = Bacteria
________
Analogy: It’s harder for the cook (anti-bacterial remedy) to please (be effective against) all of several dozen guests (lots of different bacteria?) with a single meal (standard antibiotics) than to please (be effective against) a single guest (one bacterium?) with one meal (standard antibiotics again?)
So a lot of elements do line up on this (completely natural and intuitive) reading of the analogy. But when you map it out you’re left with a big misalignment between meals and guests.
To make everything match up, you need to make bacteria the cook and map the two remedies onto the different numbers of guests:
CORRECT MAPPING
Cook = Bacteria
Pleasing Guests = Resisting Ingredients
Several Dozen Guests = Herbal Remedies (lots of active ingredients)
Single Guest = Standard Antibiotics (one active ingredient)
________
Analogy: It’s harder for the cook (bacteria) to please (resist) several dozen guests (herbal remedies) than to please (resist) a single guest (standard antibiotics).
Notice that the concept of a single meal doesn’t show up at all on this map. It’s a complete distraction without a counterpart on the other side of the analogy. If the counterpart existed, it would be the idea that bacteria are limited to one method of resistance when trying to resist active ingredients.
17.
In the analogy drawn in ███ ████████ ██████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████ ██ █ ████████ ███████████
a
a single guest
(A) is right because it lines up with the full, correct map of the analogy.
You might have disliked (A) because working backwards, it seems cleanest to say one guest vs. several guests should line up with one ingredient vs. several ingredients, not the names of the remedies.
Like if the “cook” side of the analogy started with the sentence “Dates have only a single guest, while parties have several guests,” (A) would be in trouble because standard antibiotics should match up with dates, not a single guest.
That’s a valid complaint. It’s not wrong. This question does in fact ask for a loosey-goosey pairing in that respect.
Still, (A) is the only option that even gets close to a match. That kind of “I know (A) is technically wrong, but it’s less wrong than the other choices” reasoning is unsatisfying, but it’s the best we have access to here.
b
several dozen guests
This corresponds to the wrong side of the one thing vs. several things dynamic – it’s herbal remedies that feature several active ingredients, not standard antibiotics.
c
the pleasure experienced ██ █ ██████ █████
In our analogy, the cook pleasing guests aligns with the bacteria resisting remedies. The concept operates as a verb in the stimulus – pleasing and resisting are actions that happen. Standard antibiotics correspond to the guest who experiences pleasure, not the pleasure itself.
d
a cook
Even if the rest of the stimulus is thorny, you should at least be working with the broad idea that standard antibiotics should align with whatever concept has only one thing, as opposed to some other concept that has lots of things.
If there were a difference between one cook and several cooks, (D) would be worth a closer look.
e
the ingredients available ██ █ ████
(E) is designed to take advantage of people who remember seeing the distinction between one ingredient and several ingredients in the stimulus. But that concept comes from the antibiotics side of the analogy, not the meal prep side.
The idea of various food ingredients a cook might put into a dish is a concept that doesn’t appear in the stimulus.