PT13.S4.Q19

PrepTest 13 - Section 4 - Question 19

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Orthodox medicine is ineffective at both ends of the spectrum of ailments. ██ ███ ████ ███████ ████ ████████ ████████ ██ ███████ ███████████ ██ ████████ ██████ ██████ ███ ██████████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ████████ ██ ███ ███ ██ ███████ █ ████ ███ ████████ ████████████████ ████████ ████ ██ ████████ ██████ ███ ██████ ██████ ████ ██ ███████████ ████████ ████ ████████ ████████ █████ ██ ████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ████████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ████████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ ███████ ███████████ ████████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ████ ███████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ███ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ████

Stimulus Summary

The stimulus gives us several statements about orthodox and alternative medicine. First, we're told that orthodox medicine is ineffective both in treating very mild ailments and in treating very serious ones. Then, we're told what situations make people turn to alternative medicine instead of orthodox medicine: when orthodox medicine fails to work, and when it produces unacceptable side effects. The author ends with a critique of alternative medicine: it doesn't produce the same kinds of unacceptable side effects because it just doesn't have any effects.

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19.

The charge made above against ███████████ ████████ ██ ████ █████████ ████████ ██ ██ ██ ████ ████

a

predictions based on ████████ ████████ ████ █████████ ███████ ██ ████ █ ███████ ███ █████████ ███████ ███ ████████ ██ ███████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ █████
Incorrect. Knowing that some predictions based on orthodox medicine are inaccurate doesn't provide a positive case for alternative medicine, which is what we're looking for.
2%
b

alternative medicine relies ██ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ███ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ ██████ ████ █████ ██ █████ ████████ ████████ ██ █████
Incorrect. Just knowing that alternative medicine uses different concepts than orthodox medicine doesn't give us a reason to think it might actually be effective.
6%
c

alternative medicine provides ████ ██ █████ ███ ████ ████████ ████████ ██████ ██ ████
Incorrect. Knowing that alternative medicine can provide "hope" to patients doesn't in itself counter the author's claim that alternative medicine has no effects. For (C) to work, you would need to be importing the assumption that providing hope in itself can help a patient recover — basically, what (D) explicitly says below.
7%
d

a patient’s belief ██ ███ ███████ █████████ ███ ███████ ██ █████████ ███ ███████ ███ ████████ ███ ████████ ████████████ ████████ ████████ ██████████ ███ ███████ ███████
Correct. (D) undermines the claim that alternative medicine "does not have any effects at all". Even if the treatment itself isn't providing the cure, patients receiving alternative medicine can still see positive results based on their belief in the treatment.
85%
e

many treatments used ███ █ ████ ██ ████████ ████████ ████ █████ ████ █████ ██ ██ ███████ ███████████
Incorrect. If anything, this is yet another criticism of orthodox medicine. But (E) doesn't give us a positive claim that alternative medicine can have some effect, which is what we're looking for.
1%

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