Q11

[k.shaulis]

Can anyone explain why C is incorrect? I could see reasons for it being either C or E (which is the right answer), but I chose C. Any thoughts?

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

Thanks for bringing this one to the forum!

I can see why answer choice (C) is tempting, since both answer choices (C) and (E) seem to say, "hey look, the critics are wrong." But the issue with answer choice (C) is that it says the critics are wrong about something that the author doesn't dispute. The author concedes that much has changed in the medical profession - times have changed. The author challenges the critics on what we should do about it though. Answer choice (C) says that the medical profession has not changed, whereas answer choice (E) says that the critics are wrong about what we should do about the fact that the medical profession has changed.

In short, answer choice (C) actually contradicts the passage.

Let's look at the other incorrect answers:

(A) suggests the author is revisiting and dismissing a point the author has made earlier, but this doesn't seem to be occurring.
(B) goes too far, in that the author is advocating minor revisions, not wholesale ones.
(C) contradicts the passage for the reasons above.
(D) is unsupported. The author is not advocating that our ideas about medical ethics be more flexible, but that we bend the Hippocratic Oath to our modern ideas about medical ethics.

Hope that helps!

[Drake-ob]

Hey, thanks for the response to this. Definitely helpful. But I'm still a bit confused about why C is necessarily wrong. (I see why E is a valid answer.)

C is not declaring that 'no changes in the medical profession or society in general' have ever happened, simply that such changes are not what have motivated the critics of the Hippocratic oath. The example of imaginatively reinterpreting "cutting for the stone" in order to maintain the oath's modern relevance seemed to be successful exactly where the critics in question failed: "a failure of the imagination" to apply the oath to modern times. This failure of the imagination to work around the language of the ancient oath, then, could have been a sensible way to end the paragraph, especially considering that this sentence would come on the heels of a sentence that gives an example of 'the success of the imagination.' Does that make sense? Perhaps I am reading too much into this.

Thanks,
JH

[mitrakhanom1]

i'm confused as to what answer choice b is saying. Even though I picked B. Can somebody explain it to me?

(B) goes too far, in that the author is advocating minor revisions, not wholesale ones.

So does that mean answer choice b is saying to revise the whole thing?

I'm still having a hard time understanding what answer choice e means and how to have picked it correctly.

Thanks

[rinagoldfield]

Thank you for your post, mitrakhanom1. (B) basically says:

“If we can’t make minor revisions, we might have to revise the core of the Hippocratic Oath.”

That’s not what the author says! The author wants to keep the core of the Hippocratic Oath while making minor revisions (lines 47-50 say almost exactly this). Thus (B) is incorrect.

(E) basically says “We don’t need to make a giant revision of the Hippocratic Oath.” This is what the author thinks (again, check in with lines 47-50).

Getting this question right comes down to having a precise understanding of the author’s point of view. I suggest starring/ highlighting the authors POV when you go through these passages.

Hope that helps.

--Rina

[pfjddream]

I have a general question with regards to this type of question. What should I look at when trying to come up with a general idea for an answer before jumping into looking at the answer choices? Should I only focus on the last sentence and try to pick an answer that follows logically? Or should I consider the whole passage? I am having trouble predicting an answer and if I jump right into the answer choices, I tend to get confused.

Can someone please discuss how to approach this type of question.

Thanks