PrepTest 140, Section 3, Question 26
As advances in medical research and technology have(47 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(13 more words not shown)
- AIt remains true(9 more words not shown)
- BLife spans have(7 more words not shown)
- CThe vast majority(10 more words not shown)
- DAs a population(15 more words not shown)
- EModern treatments for(10 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Better medicine, longer lives—and more serious infections. Why would the infection rate move in the wrong direction while overall health improves?
One possibility is that people who previously would have died are now living long enough to face infections later. Another is that better detection might make more infections apparent. Those are ideas to test, not facts we can add to the passage.
What we’re looking for
We need an explanation that accommodates both sides: medical progress really has improved lives, yet serious infections have become more frequent. We need a reason for the increase, not merely a reason infections haven't disappeared.
Working the answers
- A
Mistakes still occur, but A doesn't say they have become more common or explain why they would produce a steadily rising infection rate. A continuing imperfection in medicine isn't, by itself, an explanation of the new trend.
- B
This connects improved health with longer lives. Both are already on the favorable side of the puzzle. It doesn't explain the increase in serious infections, so it leaves the apparent discrepancy untouched.
- C
Being able to cure an infection is different from preventing it. This could help us understand how people survive despite getting infected, but it doesn't explain why infections are becoming more common. We still need the source of the rising rate.
- D
A proportional increase in cases as population grows would leave the infection rate unchanged. If a population doubled and its number of infections also doubled, the share infected would stay the same. The passage reports an increased rate, not just more cases. It also hasn't established the population increase D would need.
- ECorrect
The treatments themselves can create the tradeoff. They save people from illnesses that otherwise would be fatal, helping explain longer lives and improved overall health. But they also make those patients more susceptible to infection, helping explain the higher infection rate.
The two trends can therefore be connected rather than opposed: the same medical advance can provide a major benefit while increasing a different risk. We don't have to deny the improvement in treatment or the increase in infections to make sense of both.
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