PrepTest 124, Section 1, Question 5
As a result of modern medicine, more people(47 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(10 more words not shown)
- ATechnical or scientific(8 more words not shown)
- BImplementing technological innovations(11 more words not shown)
- CEvery enhancement of(8 more words not shown)
- DAll social institutions(8 more words not shown)
- ESolving one set(9 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Living longer with less pain is good news. It can also mean paying for support over more years.
Imagine a retirement program whose budget assumed people would collect benefits for a relatively short time. If people now live much longer, the program may have to fund many more years of payments. The medical improvement is real, but it creates a financial problem the old budget wasn't built to handle. That's a way to understand the passage's connection between a larger elderly population and pressure on social welfare programs.
What we’re looking for
This doesn't mean we should regret the medical improvement or stop helping people live longer. It means solving a health problem can leave us with a different problem to solve. The question asks which general proposition this situation illustrates. I'd look for that tradeoff: fixing one problem can create another.
Working the answers
- A
Maybe scientific or technical innovation could help solve the new financial problem too. The passage doesn't tell us how that problem will be solved, so it doesn't establish a limit on what innovation can accomplish. A goes beyond the example by ruling out innovation as a solution to all problems.
- B
This turns a consequence into a recommendation to delay the medical advances. Why should we wait to help people live longer until the financial system is ready? The passage identifies a funding problem; it doesn't say the costs of that problem outweigh the benefits of improved medicine or justify postponing those benefits.
- C
Every improvement? The passage gives us a particular medical improvement with a troublesome consequence. That doesn't show that every enhancement of life has negative consequences, much less that those consequences are unavoidable. We can recognize this problem without making a universal rule about all improvements.
- D
The passage concerns some social welfare programs, not all social institutions. It also describes an actual increase in longevity rather than establishing a general preoccupation with prolonging life. D broadens both the subject and the claim beyond what this example shows.
- ECorrect
The medical advances help solve problems involving illness, pain, and shortened lives. Their success increases the proportion of older people, which in turn creates financial problems for some welfare programs. One set of problems gives way to a different set.
“Can” is enough. We don't need to show that every solution creates trouble, or that the new trouble cannot be solved. This one example illustrates the possibility E describes.
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