Reading comp PrepTest 118 · Section 2 · Question 11

Passage

Questions 7-14  .        The moral precepts embodied in the Hippocratic  . oath, which physicians standardly affirm upon  . beginning Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Social Science


Paragraph 1.1 (Lines 1-12)

  • Paragraph note
    • Background
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Hippocratic Oath - Defines medical morality, has seemed impervious to criticism

Paragraph 1.2 (Lines 13-33)

  • Paragraph note
    • Critics against Hippocratic Oath
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • List of criticisms:
      • 1) Outdated
      • 2) Authoritarian doctors, hurt autonomy and privacy of patient
      • 3) Only individual patient, not overall healthcare system
      • 4) Misses some stuff (human testing, relationship to other healthcare pros)
      • 5) Historical - Might not be by Hippocrates; might not have been accepted

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Author on argument of Critics; Author recommends keeping Oath in some form
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • On Issue #5 - Dismiss it - History doesn’t matter as to whether it’s good
    • On other issues, patients need to know doctors are acting in their interest
    • Author - Hippocratic Oath should retain core value of beneficence, with revision/supplementation/interpretation at peripher
    • Example - “Cutting for stone” updated to allow surgery now that it’s safer

Main Point: Despite recent criticisms against the Hippocratic Oath, its core value of beneficence should be retained, with some revisions, supplementation, and modern interpretation on its periphery.

Key Lines?

Line 13 - A list of criticisms is started (each element is important)

Lines 34-36 - The Author responds to one criticism

Lines 47-52 - The Author’s opinion on what “should” be done with the Hippocratic Oath (main point)

Meta-Structure?

Defense from Critics - This passage falls into a common Meta-Structure, where the Author presents the arguments of Critics against a certain idea and then defends that idea against the Critics. While it’s more common in a Humanities passage that presents criticism of an artist or movement, it can show up concerning other topics, as we see here. The Author spends most of Paragraph 1 bringing up a number of criticisms (5 by our count) of the Hippocratic Oath before spending Paragraph 2 defending the Oath from that criticism. When a passage falls into this Meta-Structure, the main point is either the Author’s central disagreement with the Critics or the Author’s opinion on the central topic, if she states one. Here, she does state an opinion on the Hippocratic Oath - that the “core value of beneficence...should be retained,” with some adaptations at its periphery (Lines 47-52) - so that view should make up the main point, as we stated it above.

List - The Author lists a series of criticisms leveled against the Hippocratic Oath in Paragraph 1, and that takes up a lot of space in the passage. As such, and since it serves as both a separate viewpoint and a central part of the Defense from Critics Meta-Structure, we should expect some questions about this list.

Example - A limited example is raised at the end of the passage to show the type of “update” that the Author believes should be done on the Hippocratic Oath to modernize it.

Last Thoughts?

Two last thoughts.

First, we split up Paragraph 1 into two parts so that we could more easily digest each section. Lines 1-12 don’t have much content that we expect questions to show up from as it’s just background, but the second half of Paragraph 1 features a list of criticisms leveled against the central topic, and so we want to be sure that we’re digesting that as a unified whole.

Second, this passage has a very clear statement of the Author’s main point - it’s an opinion on what “should” be done about the main topic (Lines 47-52). When you have such a clear statement of the Author’s view, you definitely want to focus on it as you work through the questions.

Question prompt

Based on information in Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: E

The notes below walk through why it fits the stem and how to eliminate the rest.

Question Type

Humanities

Strategy Overview

Review the main point, the purpose of the final paragraph, and the final sentence, then find an answer that lines up with all of them

Answer Anticipation

These “last sentence” questions can be conceptually difficult, but we actually have a lot to work with!First, the main point. You’re not going to conclude an essay with something that runs counter to your main point or goes in a completely different direction, so the correct answer should line up with that main point. Here, that means lining up with the idea that the Hippocratic Oath should have its core value maintained with some adaptations at the periphery.Second, the last paragraph. That’s the section of the passage leading up to this final line, so the correct answer should make sense in that context. Here, the last paragraph is where the Author makes the argument backing up her main point, so that reinforces what we’ve already anticipated.Third, the last sentence. That current concluding line is the most immediate context in which the correct answer needs to make sense, so we should keep it in mind. Here, the concluding sentence (which starts all the way back in Line 52) provides a generalization with an example - the Oath has already been reinterpreted at the periphery, as can be seen with the changing view on the Oath’s banning of surgery, which is now seen as calling for surgeons to work within their area of expertise.Let’s keep all of this context in mind as we analyze the answer choices!

Answer choices

  1. A
    The fact that such Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) (Lines 34-36) As we stated above, the Author isn’t going to use the final sentence in a passage to undermine a part of her argument, especially on the back of an example that supports her main point. So this answer, in calling a part of her argument potentially wrong, is incorrect.

  2. B
    Yet, where such piecemeal Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) (Lines 47-52) The Author’s main point here is that the core value “should be retained,” so there’s no way she’d end the passage with a statement that the core value should be revised.

  3. C
    It is thus simply Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) First, it’d be weird for the Author to circle all the way back to the Critics and attack their motives. Second, the passage ends with something that has changed about the medical profession - surgery is safer with modern techniques. For both of these reasons, this answer is wrong.

  4. D
    Because of this tradition Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) If there’s a “tradition of reinterpretation,” that would suggest that parts of the Oath have been reinterpreted in the past, suggesting that it’s been as flexible as it is today for at least a long enough time for reinterpretation to become a tradition. This answer doesn’t hold together on its own terms! On top of that, there’s no support that the Author believes modern ideas on medical ethics are particularly flexible - they may be different than in the past, but there’s no indication that she believes doctors can get creative with the generally accepted ethical rules.

  5. E
    Despite many new challenges Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E matches the stem

    (E) This answer aligns with the Author’s conclusion that the core of the Oath should be retained, with some adaptations at the periphery (“no real need for wholesale revision”). It also makes sense in the context of the concluding lines, as those lines present an example of a peripheral reinterpretation of the Oath that allows a peripheral element to still be relevant today. This answer therefore makes sense in the big-picture and immediate context in the passage, so it’s the correct answer.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 7%
  2. B 16%
  3. C 11%
  4. D 26%
  5. E Credited 41%

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