Reading comp PrepTest 114 · Section 3 · Question 21

Topic: Social Science

Paragraph 1

• Paragraph note
  • Problem (med school doesn’t make students empathetic or ethical) and solution (narrative lit) introduced
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • Author’s view:
    • Because medical school can make students overlook the personal and ethical parts of being a doctor, ethical training in medical school is needed, and narrative literature is “one method” to achieve this greater empathy with patients (first through last sentence)
  • Cause-and-effect relationship, according to the author:
    • Scientific thinking inherent in medical training can cause medical students to overlook the human and ethical side of patient care (second sentence)
  • Author’s attitude: “greatest challenge" (first sentence); "risks" (second sentence); “insufficient” (second sentence); “need to develop" (third sentence); "one method of accomplishing this" (last sentence)

Paragraph 2

• Paragraph note
  • Author’s criticism of traditional training (abstract, doesn’t prepare students for complex realities)
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • Comparison between traditional training and narrative literature, according to the author:
    • Traditional ethical training in medical school does not contribute to students’ understanding of the patient experience or expose them to ethical dilemmas, while ethical training emphasizing narrative literature grounds students in real-world perspectives and shows them interpersonal relationships that are necessary for developing empathy with patients (second through last sentences)
  • Author’s attitude: "relies heavily" (first sentence); “contributes little” (second sentence); “true foundation must be predicated” (third sentence); “required” (third sentence); “can better help students” (last sentence); “so forcefully” (last sentence)

Paragraph 3

• Paragraph note
  • Benefits of solution (adopting others’ viewpoints, which develops flexible ethical thinking)
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • List of ways in which reading narratives leads to desirable moral relativism
    • Readers see moral dilemmas from perspectives other than their own and utilize moral imagination (first sentence)
    • Readers abandon an absolute set of moral principles while reading narratives (second sentence)
    • Readers abandon their own point of view and set of ethical principles in favor of those presented in the narrative (third sentence)
  • Author’s attitude: “uniquely suited” (first sentence), “worthy of attention” (second sentence); “must use” (second sentence); “requires” (third sentence), “strictly, absolute, inviolate sets of moral principles” (third sentence); “demands” (last sentence), “requires” (last sentence)

Paragraph 4

• Paragraph note
  • Rebutting objection that narrative lit. leads to no principles (it’s a middle-ground between no principles and strict principles)]
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • Comparison between situational ethics, absolutist ethics, and narrative literature, according to the author:
    • In situational ethics, decisions are entirely relative to the circumstances, which is not desirable (first and second sentences)
    • In absolutist ethics, decisions are made based on an inflexible set of principles, which is not desirable either (second sentence)
    • Reading narrative literature will help balance medical students between situational and absolutist decision-making (third and last sentences)
  • Author’s attitude: “does not follow” (first sentence); “entirely relative” (first sentence); “extremely relativistic stance” (second sentence), “as little benefit” (second sentence); “dogmatically absolutist one” (second sentence); “fortunately” (third sentence); “corrective” (third sentence); “need not lead” (third sentence); “can give us” (last sentence); “lacking” (last sentence); “a deeper understanding” (last sentence); “can serve as a foundation” (last sentence); “allow greater flexibility (last sentence)

Main Point: Narrative literature provides effective ethical training to medical students, as it encourages flexible ethical thinking and a better understanding of human behavior.

Paragraph 1, Sentence 1 (P1, S1) - Introduces problem

P1, S4 - Author’s proposed solution

P3, S1 - Specific reason why the proposed solution will work, according to the author

P4, S1 - Rebuttal of potential objection to the proposed solution

Problem/Solution: This passage utilizes a Problem/Solution Meta-Structure*. The first sentence introduces the central problem that the author will attempt to solve: that traditional ethical training might produce in medical students rigid ethical thinking and a lack of empathy for their patients. By the last sentence of the first paragraph, the author has proposed a solution to the problem: the use of narrative literature. 

The main point in a Problem/Solution passage is the author's opinion on the proposed solution. In this passage, the author believes that ethical training incorporating narrative literature is preferable to the traditional, abstract, and more absolutist version of ethical training since narrative literature encourages flexible ethical thinking appropriate for the complex interactions doctors have with their patients. So, we summarized the main point as, "Narrative literature provides effective ethical training to medical students, as it encourages flexible ethical thinking and a better understanding of human behavior."

*You could make a solid case that this passage has an Old Approach/New Approach structure. There's the old, staid approach to medical ethics and this cool, new narrative literature-based approach. You could even argue that this is a Correcting the Record passage since the author addresses the shortcomings of the traditional way of teaching medical ethics, before "correcting" those shortcomings with narrative literature. If you determined that the passage had any of these Meta-Structures on test day, you'd almost certainly identify the main point correctly and understand the passage's overall structure.

The organization of the entire passage is based on the author's view, and all the paragraphs are structured to prove that the author's proposed solution to the problem is the right one. Even when the author mentions other types of ethical approaches (such as the absolutist and situational approaches), the author only mentions these to show why their version of ethical training is effective. This is important to keep in mind on Argument Structure questions. The correct answer to these questions will likely describe how the author's discussions of absolutist and situational approaches are meant to support the author's argument about narrative literature.